Dark Knights, Dark Nights
by heaven-monument
Summary: A brother and sister join forces with many others in their quest to destroy the Soul Edge. Plenty of OC's. Blended universe COTS and SC. Discontinued, will resubmit on reader request. Read if you really want to, but don't expect updates.
1. Prologue

Dark Nights, Dark Knights

_Prologue_

Summary: This is a Chronicles of the Sword fanfiction, happening around two years after Chronicle 20. It's a blended universe, that is, a mix of the COTS and Soul Calibur universe. Pretend that Grandall, Dalkia and Halteese are somewhere in the north-west of Russia... trust me, it'll all make sense soon.

Disclaimer: I, Heaven-Monument, do not own the rights to Soul Calibur and the series, but I wish I did.

'Soul Calibur', 'Soul Edge', 'Grandall', 'Cervantes de Leon' and all related terms are registered trademarks of Namco Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Once there was a man who was revered and respected as one of the greatest sword fighters in the land of Grandall. He was extremely skilled with swords, lances, staffs, knives and the like, and was called to the Grandall Army in the mid 16th century. Eventually, he was asked to search all over the world for the 'Sword of Salvation', Soul Edge. His parents wanted him to marry before he left, and he obliged gratefully, marrying a beautiful woman, who was the daughter of an old friend of his father's. She bore him a son, Lee, and a daughter, Elle, one year apart. He left soon after Elle's birth, vowing to return as soon as he had found Soul Edge.

Eventually finding several fragments, enough to recreate a basic form, he made the choice to stop using his lance and exclusively use Soul Edge, which conveniently turned into a lance of similar size and shape, for its amazing attack power and solid design. He did not realise that Soul Edge was an evil sword, though.

When he returned to Grandall many years later, many of the townsfolk came to him with the news that the dread pirate and original wielder of Soul Edge, Cervantes de Leon, was searching for fragments of the evil sword, the man feared for his life and decided to search for the pirate and kill him.

When he found the pirate, he challenged him to a fight for the remaining part of the Soul Edge, Cervantes agreed and decimated him. As witness reports tell, Cervantes took the lance and sailed away laughing manically.

Soon enough, the news spread to the man's family. His son and daughter were shocked, and readied to avenge their father at their mother's request. They prepared their weapons, particularly Lee taking his father's original lance, Blazecleaver, and Elle taking a basic Katana paired with a giant Shuriken, named Tobikage & Onimaro, respectively.

This is their story, of vengeance, courage, and loyalty, of two swords, two destinies, fiercely entwined.

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Well, there's the prologue. Hope you like reading it, and don't, I mean don't forget to review if you can!

Heaven-Monument

EDIT (23 Jan): For those interested in my 'Your OC in my story' offer, only two offers have been promised, and yet not delivered. There are about eight places open, and only to people who review! So, you want your character in my story? Read on!

EDIT (8 Mar): Over 230 hits for this chapter alone, and yet not even 50 on any other chapter. So, I implore you! You like this story? Read on... I swear, it gets better as I go along!

EDIT (4 July): Over 300 hits here, not even 150 on any other. Please, PLEASE, read on. I swear it gets better. You can take Gundam Nightshade's testimony in a review: 'A very cool concept that I haven't seen yet.' So[makes bambi eyes pleeeeease?


	2. New Allies

Dark Knights, Dark Nights

_Chapter One: New Allies_

Disclaimer:

I do not own the rights to Soul Calibur and the series, but I wish I did.

'Soul Calibur', 'Soul Edge', 'Grandall', 'Kingdom of Dalkia', 'Strife Astlar', 'Halteese Republic', 'Demuth Beel Zebus Halteese', 'Aurelia Dichalha Dolce Dalkia', 'Luna', 'Cervantes De Leon', 'Lupi', 'Jinkai', 'Kilik', 'Chai Xianghua', and all related terms are registered trademarks of Namco Ltd. All rights reserved.

OK, for all those who are reading, this is the first official chapter of the story. As per the title, two new allies will become part of the DKDN story. If you don't want to read to find out who, they are SPOILER Xianghua and Kilik! END SPOILER

Enjoy, review, be merry!

Heaven-Monument

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'Hurry up Lee, we must leave!'

Elle, as usual, was frantically packing all her belongings and weapons, or as many as she could carry. She had trained hard, and was a very strong fighter, physically and mentally. She and Lee would spar for hours on end, with different weapons, the same weapons, in forests, plains, rocks, dry lakes, anywhere that was desolate, big, and hard to find. There was plenty of this land around, especially now that Lee had won the hearts of the Grandall people after he defeated Strife. Lee had given up his role as emperor and handed it over to the next in line, who, fortunately for the people of Grandall, was not insane like Strife was. The new emperor had issued a formal apology to the Halteese Republic, or what was left of it, for Strife's misdeeds. Of course, he openly refrained from apologising to King Demuth of the Republic of Maletta, or Queen Aurelia of the Kingdom of Dalkia, because they started the war. The only exception was Luna, who gave Lee Soul Calibur to destroy all remaining fragments of Soul Edge. Lee was truly grateful for that, and elevated her to the new emperor's personal knight.

Lee sat up on his bed. He had already packed the night before, and was enjoying a well-earned rest. He found a shirt, his favourite green and cream coloured hunting shirt, slipped it on and put on his shoes. Elle knocked on the door loudly.

'All right, I'm coming! You know, I packed the night before!'

Elle barged in with her bags and weapons, with her katana in its scabbard and her shuriken on her back, spinning quietly. The weapons were a gift from her father when she was 16, as well as all the other weapons he had given her and Lee before he left to find Cervantes de Leon. Her father had chosen to take his treasured lance, Blazecleaver, with him. It was recovered after his death and given to Lee, who was now taking it out of its case.

'You know, I can't thank Luna enough. Her friend, Lupi, was the original wielder of this lance, and Lupi was kind enough to fashion an exact replica for me.' Lee said casually.

'Really? I always wondered where dad got his from.' Elle enquired, with a raised eyebrow.

Lee sighed. 'I don't know. Because he was much older than Lupi, maybe _he_ was the original wielder of it. He never told me.' He paused, then straightened up. 'Right. Let's bid mother goodbye, and take a final trip to find this pirate guy. Don't forget Soul Calibur.'

Elle turned around and picked up the holy sword. Soul Calibur, the sword forged to destroy Soul Edge, was extremely powerful, had healing properties, light and sturdy, and most of all, changed form according to the user. Elle, being skilled in many fighting disciplines, confused the sword. It half-changed from its usual jian form, to a katana, lance, kunai, great sword, steel fan, before finally deciding on a chained sickle.

'Looks like I'm using a sickle today.' Elle commented. 'OK, let's go.'

Lee was lost in thought. 'Huh? Oh yeah. Got everything?' Elle nodded silently. 'Good.'

They walked through the door, down the hallway to where their mother was sitting down with two strangers.

'Oh Lee, Elle, these two wonderful people came here and said they wanted to talk to you. They say it is something to do with your quest.'

Lee was puzzled. There was a man and a woman of Chinese appearance. The man was holding a red staff, wearing red pants and a blue belt, with no top, while the woman was wearing a pink top and blue pants, holding a thin sword with a blue handle and tassel on the end.

'Hi Lee, Hi Elle! I'm Chai Xianghua!' Xianghua stood up eagerly and shook their hands. 'And this is my friend Kilik.'

Kilik stood up as well and shook hands also. 'Hello. We heard that you killed Strife and your father was killed by Cervantes.'

Elle nodded. 'True. We were just about to leave, so we must bid you farewell.'

Elle stepped forward and hugged her mother goodbye.

The visitors were confused. The taller man (_Keylick? It rings a bell…_ thought Lee) stepped forward also, and said flatly, 'We have some important information for you, and we need you to hear it. Don't think that we are oblivious to Cervantes' deeds.'

Kilik glanced at his female friend. 'Right, Xiang?'

Xianghua took the hint. 'Yeah! Two and a half years ago, we destroyed a major part of Soul Edge, Nightmare. You know, the Azure Knight? We took him out.'

Lee and Elle were astounded. 'How, with Soul Calibur?' Elle questioned, and reaching into her bag to take the sword out.

Xianghua blinked, and gave a small remark of wonder. 'I wondered who was the next wielder of it. It's still in its original condition, as beautiful as ever. May I?' Xianghua took the sword, and twirled it around in her hand.

'Please, watch the vases!' Elle's mother called out, speaking for the first time today.

She had become quite reserved after her husband's murder, but was speaking with a renewed vigour now that her children were ready to avenge the murderer. However, she was not able to come with them, as she had become quite ill and had lost most of her former strength. Also, she said that she needed to look after the house.

Xianghua hastily stopped, and set the vase straight. 'Oh, sorry! I have a tendency to practise in weird places…' She chuckled. 'Right, down to business. Now, we need to take you to a woman's house. This woman is called Ivy, and she lives in London. She is the most wonderful and powerful alchemist in the Western world. We have already arranged transport with a pirate friend. If we may, we need to leave now, if not as soon as possible.'

Lee was sceptical. 'Ivy? Her name rings a bell. She has a weird sword, doesn't she?'

Kilik nodded. 'Multi-segmented whip sword. Dark magic was involved, but she's good now.'

Elle looked at her mother. 'Well, Mother? Shall we go on a wild goose chase to avenge our father's death?'

Elle's mother paused. Xianghua and Kilik were nodding slightly with smiles on their faces. 'Elle, Lee, I don't see why not. Go get them! Remember, I won't leave you. I am with you always.'

Lee stepped forward, and hugged his mother. 'Thankyou Mother. We will not rest until that pirate is dead.'

Elle came forward, and hugged her too. 'Goodbye. We will return.'

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Sniffle Don't you love sentimental endings? Blows nose

Right, I'm better now. Now that the four of them have left, a whole new world is open for them. The hunt for Cervantes will begin with a trip to a certain mansion…

OK, I will say no more. Don't forget to review!

Heaven-Monument


	3. Friendly Pirate

Dark Knights, Dark Nights

_Chapter Two: Friendly Pirate_

Disclaimer:

I do not own the rights to Soul Calibur and the series, but I wish I did.

'Soul Calibur', 'Soul Edge', 'Grandall', 'Cervantes de Leon' and all related terms are registered trademarks of Namco Ltd. All rights reserved.

OK, Chapter Two! The hunt for Cervantes is on! Now, the foursome of warriors will begin with a trip to a little place called England. And if you don't know who I talking about, you need to stay in more.

As per always, review!

Heaven-Monument

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'Alright then! Let's go, guys!' Xianghua chimed in merrily.

Elle was very excited to find a person with information, especially as much as Xianghua and Kilik had described, but Lee was not so enthusiastic.

Kilik looked at him as they walked away from the house, to the port – a 45-minute walk on a good day. 'Why so glum, Lee? We shall escort you to Ivy's house and she should be happy to give you information, because she would do anything to get rid of her father. You know, she is directly involved with Soul Edge…'

Elle, who was listening intently next to Kilik, butted in with, 'Who is her father?'

Kilik cleared his throat, and said, 'Um, er,' He cleared his throat again gruffly. 'It is, um, Cer…'

'WHAT??? WE ARE NOT GOING TO SEE THE DAUGHTER OF OUR FATHER'S MURDERER!'

Kilik shuffled back, with his staff as protection. 'Hey! Ivy hates her father, as I said. She personally wants to destroy him. She was the child of a rape when Cervantes was possessed around 30 years ago, and _voila_, (Insert cheesy Latino accent here) _Isabella_!' Kilik cleared his throat. 'Anyway, she was adopted by Count and Countess Valentine, who are now passed, and she now lives in the lap of luxury. Hey, so this is the port?'

They had arrived at the port, where a man, waving merrily to Xianghua and Kilik, manned one small wooden ship.

Lee asked, 'Who is he? Nice hair.'

'Yeah, I know! He's obsessed about it. That's Maxi, a Ryukyu pirate. Us three saved Ivy once, oh, about five, six years ago?' Xianghua looked at Kilik.

'That's right, Xiang. Hi guys, Maxi. You are?'

Elle was momentarily puzzled. 'Er, um, I'm Elle and this is my brother, Lee. How are you?'

'Great! Come on board!' Maxi turned around and ran inside the ship again. Xianghua and Kilik followed, arm in arm, and Lee and Elle, taken aback by Maxi's interesting personality, at the least, walked behind.

Inside the ship, Xianghua and Kilik went straight up to the deck. When asked by Elle, they said, 'We came here on the ship, we know where our stuff is, you go ahead. We'll meet you later.'

Maxi showed Elle and Lee separate rooms, next to each other. In each room, there was a chest of drawers made of exquisite mahogany, a matching double bed, a cabinet for their other belongings, and a store for their weapons.

'Uh, Maxi? You got a bigger weapons store? We need to store around forty weapons.' Lee asked lightly.

'Forty weapons? What exactly are you people?'

Elle sniggered. 'Level 45, and 70 sword mistresses (Lee cleared his throat loudly), um sword masters, for me and Lee, respectively.'

Maxi sighed. 'Alright, you can use mine as well, but don't even think of using my nunchaku. Mine are mine and yours are yours. My nunchaku are special, unless you have Shuang Lei?'

Lee shook his head.

'Alright then. Carry on.' Maxi turned and walked to the deck.

On the deck, Xianghua and Kilik were gazing at the sea, Xianghua and Kilik in a light embrace. They were interrupted by Maxi's sudden arrival.

'Oh, Maxi. Are we leaving?' Kilik asked, eager to divert attention from the show of emotion.

'Um, Yeah. We are leaving now, so you might want to get a little higher up so you can see better. To London!' Maxi shouted.

And as the ship sailed away into the horizon, Lee began to think as he put away his weapons, _if I were a bloodthirsty, evil, piece of trash intent on murdering innocent people, where would I reside?_

In the next room, Elle was thinking the same thing, playing with the blade of the soon-to-be-used Soul Calibur.

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Adds a little bit of mystery, of uncertainty, of whats-gunna-happen-next, eh?

(Insert review speech here)

Heaven-Monument


	4. Journey

Dark Knights, Dark Nights

_Chapter Three: Journey_

If you want a good disclaimer, it's on the previous page.

However, I do not own the rights to Soul Calibur, its characters, notions, etc, etc. Let's get on with the story, right?

In London we are! The five of them are journeying towards the lovely Valentine Mansion, named after Ivy's parents. As you would know in SC3, it is luxurious enough to cost a fortune, and we don't really know if Ivy will let them in. But before that, Kilik must give something special to the avenging duo.

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Around two weeks later, they arrived in London. The trip was fairly unexciting, except for the setup made by Maxi to get Kilik and Xianghua in bed, together. Of course, Xianghua was too smart for that, faking sleep, and for Maxi's punishment, she promptly threw his nunchaku into the sea. Maxi dived in without any hesitation, and Xianghua locked the ship door so Maxi couldn't get in. Of course, Lee and Elle were laughing their heads off, and Kilik was completely oblivious, sleeping through the whole event. _What am I going to tell him later?_ Lee pondered, still giggling.

London was fairly quiet, and Kilik called Lee and Elle to the side as Maxi and Xianghua unloaded the luggage.

'Over here, guys.' Kilik said quietly. 'Now, I have here a little something that will help you confront Cervantes.'

Elle was confused. 'Huh? What are you talking about?'

Kilik held up a little blue pendant that he was wearing as a necklace. 'This is called Dvapara-Yuga. It is a purifying stone, which can easily counter any evil influence caused by Soul Edge, or its hosts.'

Lee was transfixed by the blue stone. 'Wow. It's sooo pretty.'

Kilik smirked. 'I know. But, I can't give you this one. Long story short, I go insane if I don't have Dvapara-Yuga taking in my evil energy and countering it. So, I have a smaller one for each of you. All you need to do is hold it up in their face, and make it catch the light. When the light passes through this, it becomes a polar opposite of evil, and Soul Edge is the embodiment of evil. It should work very well, I've done it before on a little girl in Romania.' (ED: If you have completed Raphael's ToS in SC3, you know who I am talking about if you saw the bad ending!)

'OK. Where is it?' Elle asked politely.

Kilik shuffled in his pockets, and pulled out two small necklaces; almost identical to the one he was wearing, and gave one to each. 'A word of warning: Don't put them on until you are close to a source of evil, otherwise you become dependent on them. So, put them in your pocket and most importantly, _don't lose them, whatever you do!_'

The two warriors nodded eagerly, taking the stones in their hand and putting them in their pockets.

Kilik nodded in approval. 'OK, so Ivy's house, or mansion, really, is a two-day trip to the outskirts of London by foot, so we need to rent a horse and carriage. You guys

know English English?'

Lee nodded. The official language of Grandall was indeed English, and the escorting trio's English was basic at best. They were originally communicating in Chinese; fortunately, all of Lee's family were fluent in most Asian languages. Communication between the five was easy, yet communication with other people had to be with Lee and Elle.

Maxi called out to them. 'Hey guys, this luggage won't move by itself! You need to get all your stuff, including your weapons! I can't carry it all!'

Lee and Elle, looked at each other, nodded once, and strode forward purposefully.

Later…

'Valentine Mansion? Well, you would need to firstly take a trip to the hospital, because no-one in their right mind would go to the Valentine place! You all must be out of your mind!'

Elle and Lee were having no luck whatsoever with finding directions to the mansion. 'Obviously no-one likes Ivy.' Elle muttered to Xianghua, who nodded knowingly.

Finally, after much of a bribing, they finally got one of the town leaders to tell them the way. 'May God have mercy on your souls!' He later cried. And as Kilik said, it as a long way out of town, so on the way, they paid for a carriage with two horses for handling all their luggage and weapons.

'Guys, we've got almost no money left. We need to get there by the end of the day, or we will go hungry.' Lee remarked to the group.

'Don't worry, Lee.' Maxi said. 'Ivy's place is only around ten minutes from here, and if you look around, um, this corner, you can see it in the distance.'

Indeed, Maxi had been right. The mansion was an imposing figure, the size of a small mountain. Lee and Elle gasped dramatically at the sight, and even more so when they reached the gate.

'OK, everyone off! It's Ivy time, it's getting dark.' Xianghua barked matter-of-factly.

And now we enter the grounds of Valentine Mansion, where Ivy will be waiting (hopefully) to give the five of them vital information on her birth father.

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If you read, try to review! That's how it goes!

Heaven-Monument


	5. Taken

Dark Knights, Dark Nights

_Chapter Four: Taken_

Et, voila! Valentine Mansion! Now, the group can finally get some info on the evil pirate, former host of Soul Edge, let's welcome to the limelight, Cervantes de Leon! (Applause)

Clears throat Er, um, right. Carry on. Review please!

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The whole grounds were surrounded by a thick stone fence, which really was a wall, except for the front, which was an iron fence. A sign hung on the fence –

VALENTINE MANSION. TRESPASSERS WILL BE FORCIBLY MURDERED. ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK.

'Yep, that's Ivy for ya,' said Maxi, sniggering at the sign.

The five of them, with their luggage and weapons in tow, walked to the fence handle and turned it.

Kilik turned to the group. 'OK guys, be on your fullest alert. Last time I came here, Ivy didn't recognise me and sent wild dogs to eat me. I hit them hard with good ol' Kali-Yuga. So, weapons out, and Elle and Maxi, walk backwards. Xianghua and Lee, walk sideways facing away from each other. I'll walk forwards.'

'What?'

'You've got to be kidding.'

'Are you sure this is necessary?'

The group was incredulous. Kilik, however, often did this when travelling in unfamiliar places. Luckily, Ivy was waiting. She was in her first player costume, a white lace bodysuit, clutching her Valentine sword, an Asian-inspired seven-section whip sword that can change from a sword to a multi-segmented whip at will. She strode forward, gave a rare smile, and said to the five, 'Welcome to the Valentine Mansion. I am Isabella Valentine, best known as Ivy. Hello Kilik, Maxi, Xianghua. How are you? How was the trip?'

Xianghua spoke first. 'Yeah, it was quite fun. We told these guys a lot about you, your relation with Cerv…' She glanced at Elle. Elle shook her head. 'Um, your father…' Ivy shuddered. Xianghua continued. 'And your role with Soul Edge and Soul Calibur. Speaking of which…' Xianghua took out the sword from Elle's pack. 'Here you go. Soul Calibur, today in chained sickle form. A bit like your sword.'

Ivy was stunned. She had never got her hands on the holy sword, and took it with relish. The sword glowed, and Ivy dropped it.

'Ouch! Hot…'

Kilik was worried. 'Ivy, what happened?'

Ivy looked up, clutching her hand. 'The sword doesn't like me.'

Maxi shook his head. 'Ivy, I have handled Soul Calibur once. It felt awful at first because of my faint trace of Soul Edge, but after a while it felt natural, even better than Soryuju. Of course, it could be worse for you, being of evil blood. No offense.'

'None taken.' Ivy replied at once.

Lee spoke for the first time since Ivy had met them. 'Go ahead, Ivy. Try again, and empty your mind of all that troubles you. That often helps.'

Ivy concentrated, and the holy sword glowed, and changed immediately into a whip sword, much like Valentine except bigger and much more beautiful.

Elle smiled. 'Go ahead, swing it around a bit. Change it around. Go for it!'

Ivy obliged, but before she started, she said, 'Go inside and go up the central staircase. To your left are your bedrooms, each with a golden plaque with your name on it. Dinner will be in twenty minutes, in the dining hall. There are signs around if you get lost.'

'Thanks Ivy!' Kilik said happily, and opened the doors. 'Have fun, and don't lose it!' The five of them went inside, leaving Ivy alone with the holy sword. She immediately went into a basic Spiral Punishment, to Metal Dancer, Asylum, Cagemaster, then finally attempting to do Summon Suffering on a lifesize garden gnome. She failed, leaving the gnome in pieces.

In his bedroom, Maxi was doing his hair.

In _his_ bedroom, Kilik was changing into his 2P costume. Toplessness was frowned

upon at dinner.

In **_his_ **bedroom, Lee was unpacking.

In her bedroom, Xianghua was unpacking.

In _her_ bedroom, Elle was no-where to be seen. A note was left on her bed, which said,

Don't worry, I won't take anything but her life!

BOP, Assassin #48

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Oh-oh. The bipolar one is at it again.

Will Elle be found alive? Will Lee find the assassin? Will Maxi's hair be okay?

Find out next chapter! Review if you can!


	6. The rescue

Dark Knights, Dark Nights

_Chapter Five: Rescue_

Here we go, Chapter Five: The Rescue! Don't forget to review at the bottom of the screen!

Hope you enjoy this chapter, Heaven-Monument

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Lee burst out of Elle's room, clutching the note. 'Elle's gone! Someone kidnapped her!' He stormed down the hallway and down the stairs.

Xianghua popped her head out her door, sword in hand. 'What did you say? Elle's gone?' She dropped her sword on the floor and ran after Lee.

Quickly catching up to him, she asked again, 'What did you say before? What's that note?' She took it, and scanned it quickly. 'BOP. I've heard that before. Ivy! Ivy, we have a problem here! Elle was kidnapped!'

Ivy stepped out of the kitchen. 'Huh? Are you kidding me?' She took the note and also read it, but immediately turned red after seeing 'BOP'. 'Tira. That damnable piece of trash. We need to leave immediately. Kilik! Maxi! Get down here NOW!'

At that moment, Kilik and Maxi ran out of their rooms, weapons in hand. 'What's up?' Maxi offhandedly asked, yawning. 'Who burnt dinner? Lee, was it you?'

'Maxi, shut up! Dinner is cancelled on the account of Elle being kidnapped by an assassin that I once battled before. Her name is Tira, and she shouldn't be hard to find. Get your weapons and meet me here in one minute. Any longer and you will stay behind.' Ivy ran to the kitchen to retrieve Valentine.

Kilik stopped, thinking. 'Tira. She is one of Nightmare's followers, right? Giant ring blade thing?'

Xianghua nodded. 'Wait here, Kilik. I shall get my sword.' And with that Xianghua sprinted up to her room and grabbed the sword she previously dropped on the floor.

In his room, Lee had a hard time choosing a good weapon. 'Katana…Kunai…Jian…Lance…Steel Fan… Oh, I can't decide! Um, Dagger…Dao…Rapier…Rapier! That's it!' He picked up a basic rapier from his store, quickly got into his stance and waved it around. After that, he walked out of his room and down the staircase.

The four of them assembled in the foyer. 'Right,' began Ivy. 'Tira is an assassin with Bird of Passage, a large organisation much like a mafia. She carries around a large ring blade called Aiselne Drossel, and has a flock of ravens as help hiding. But, she is bipolar. So if you hear a voice that changes from happy to angry quickly, you found Tira. Let's go. Oh, and fellas, Tira doesn't wear much clothes, really. A strap of feathers and leather covers up her assets, but at least she isn't Valeria. Come on.'

The four ran outside, and Ivy closed the front doors. 'Now, everyone be quiet,' Ivy whispered. 'The groups are as follows: I shall go with Lee, Kilik goes with Xianghua, and Maxi goes by himself (Maxi raised his eyebrows). She is accompanied by a flock of ravens, so she should be easy to find. Fight to kill, everyone.'

The other four nodded and silently crept away.

In a tree beside a road a few hundred metres away, Tira was crouching, weapon at the ready. Elle was bound, gagged and blindfolded. 'Now,' Tira was asking innocently, 'We are going to wait and let them come close. Then I will kill you into teeny-tiny little pieces! Haha!' Tira continued laughing in that manic, childish way we all know and hate. 'And then I will let them find your remains at the bottom of the tree with my signature calling card! They won't stand a chance!' Tira giggled at the thought of Elle's heroes trying to put her back together, limb by limb.

Elle was getting angrier, and was quietly swearing behind her gag. Tira noticed how angry she was getting, and sweetly asked, 'What was that? Hm? I still can't hear you, you'll need to speak louder! Oh, wait, my mistake! I've gagged you so you can't call for help! Aren't I smart!' At this, Elle reached boiling point, and snapped the ropes binding her wrists. Tira felt for her weapon, but it had fallen out of the tree. Tira tried, in vain, to secure Elle's wrists with some new rope, but Elle was gone. She had jumped out of the tree, and thrown the weapon away where Tira couldn't find it easily. Elle was attempting to run away, when suddenly Tira had thrown herself at Elle's legs. _Clearly she's faster than she looks. Catlike, even._ Elle thought. Elle threw her over her shoulder. Tira readied herself for some hand-on-hand combat, but Elle was already attacking. She had aimed a flying kick at Tira's head, which grazed her shoulder, but Tira was already trying to wrestle Elle from behind. Elle broke free, and aimed an uppercut under Tira's chin. Tira was already leaping over and was aiming head-first for Elle. Elle had not been expecting it, and was crushed by Tira and grounded. Tira had the advantage, and took the time that was hers to throw several small knives at Elle, one by one. Elle, who was certainly smarter than what Tira had thought, was dodging every single one without breaking a sweat. She then backflipped up and landed on her feet, and finally when Tira was off her guard, Elle crouched and span 360º with her legs outstretched. Tira was hit by the full brunt of the attack, and was spinning helplessly before collapsing on the ground. Elle dusted her hands off and dragged Tira off to the side of the road. She then ran back to the Valentine Mansion to pick up the weapon, and hopefully, find her friends.

Still in the grounds of the Valentine Mansion, Maxi was strolling along, occasionally checking the plants for footsteps, crumpled leaves, any sort of clue that could help find Elle. Casually humming a song he would often sing while on his carefree, motiveless trips on his boat, he looked around. Ivy and Lee were conversing seriously, while Kilik and Xianghua were trying to see if there was any evidence of Elle. Maxi smirked, and resumed scanning for traces of Lee's sister.

Maxi stopped suddenly. Someone, definitely a woman, was walking casually towards the fence, wearing glasses, with long hair, wearing a shirt, pants and a robe over the front. It could only be… Elle. Maxi quickly thought of a naughty plan to scare the rest of them, and quietly chuckled at the thought.

'Psst! Elle!' he whispered, trying not to attract the attention of the other four rescuers.

Elle looked around in the darkness, and walked faster towards the voice. Maxi popped his head over, supported on his arms.

Elle spotted Maxi, and smiled. 'Maxi! What's going on? Where's Ivy? Where's Kil-'

'Shh! I have an idea. Help me over and I'll tell you.' Maxi grinned naughtily. Elle caught the hint, and grabbed Maxi's hands and hoisted him over quickly. Maxi whispered quickly. 'OK. First, how'd you get rid of Tira?'

Elle laughed quietly. 'Oh, it was quite easy! She had me tied up, but I broke free, kicked her weapon away, and beat her up with my bare hands. I took her to the side of a road. I let her get away, but we'll find her if she comes back again. So, what's your big idea?'

'It's quite simple. All you need to do is go to where Lee is on the other side of the fence, and say quietly, 'No! Let go of me! Wait… What are you doing with that thing-? No, no!!! Aaargh!...' Basically, we need to persuade them that Tira has got to you, so they will come running, and then you scare them! Ha! What I do in the meantime is make them all come to the one place, where you are, and then you do your thing!'

Elle thought about it, a lopsided grin on her face. 'OK. Let's do it. Quick, you go..'

Maxi ran off, around the corner, while Elle followed silently, at a distance.

Meanwhile, Tira was waking up slowly. 'She's better than I thought. Possibly the second or third person who has stood up to me. I will get her eventually, though, and make her death long and painful.' She stood up, retrieved her weapon a distance away, then called on her avian companions to help her find the future victim again.

In the grounds of the Valentine Mansion, Ivy and Lee were talking quietly. 'Tira can't have gone far. Found anything yet?' Ivy asked Lee.

Lee was poring over some footsteps. They were quite shallow, inferring that Tira was lightweight, fast, and agile. 'Yeah, some footsteps. Take a look over here.' Ivy scurried over, high heels and all.

'They look like Tira's. Well, foot and hand size are directly related to height, and I'm around six inches taller than her, so I should have bigger feet. Let's see here…' Ivy took off her right shoe, and tested the size of her foot and the footprint. 'Yep, around an inch shorter than mine. That's about right.' Ivy got up, replaced her shoe and walked briskly towards Kilik. 'Kilik, Xianghua, we have a clue for you. A footprint over there' She pointed to where Lee and herself were searching. 'was probably made by Tira. If we follow the direction of the footprint, we should find more clues, or even our captor.'

Kilik nodded. 'Great. Now, where's Maxi… Maxi? Maxi, where are you? Hello…?'

Just that moment, Maxi sprinted through the gates, nunchaku in hand. 'Guys? I saw Tira running away, laughing. I can't find a body, but I am sur-'

Lee was already running. For one of such great physical strength, Lee was an exceptionally fast runner. He was through the gates, rapier poised and ready, and checked every street he could. Kilik, Maxi and Xianghua were checking the other streets, with Ivy hobbling behind in her high heels. After breaking both heels, and nearly breaking her ankle, Ivy dispensed with her shoes and ran in her stockings.

Maxi was ushering them all to one particular place, behind the fence that they had found the footprint. 'I think I saw Tira around this corner. Yes, around here. _Get your sword out Ivy!_' Ivy hurriedly took out Valentine, and the group crept around the corner. At the sight of Elle's body, Lee ran forward and burst into tears. As soon as he began to cry into Xianghua's arms, Elle sat up. 'Hi guys!'

'AAAARRGH!!! Holy Mother of God!' Kilik yelled.

'Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohm…' Xianghua was almost white, bobbing up and down, clearly shocked by the re-apparition of Elle.

Lee and Ivy had fainted, but Maxi was clutching his stomach, in hysterics. As soon as Kilik and Xianghua had discovered the prank, they both took out their weapons and proceeded to chase Maxi around the block.

Elle stood up, brushed herself off, and then bent down to check on her brother and host. 'My, maybe that was too realistic…' And with that she began to drag them back to Valentine Mansion.

Five minutes later, Kilik and Xianghua had immobilised Maxi, confiscated his weapon and were escorting him to Valentine Mansion. Xianghua was venting her anger, walking in front of Maxi with her sword up to his neck, while Kilik was walking behind, poking Maxi with Kali-Yuga, and occasionally pushing the holy bo into his back quite hard (Bo Thrust, 6B) so Maxi would bend back from the pain. When they had arrived at the doors of Valentine Mansion, Kilik hit him hard, which brought Maxi to the ground, and walked inside with Xianghua, slamming and locking the door hard. Maxi was now really regretful of his prank. 'Oh come on guys, it was just a harmless little joke… Oh come on, let me in! I'm gonna miss dinner! Pleeeeease?'

'NO!'

XXXXX

Well, there you have it! Elle's playful attitude will show during the next few chapters.

SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT

Next chapter, Ivy will give Lee and Elle some information and then they will travel to Spain, where they will meet the first of their allies! These allies are people from my COTS saves.

SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT

Don't forget to review, because I am **_dying for a response! _**

Your friend and author, Heaven-Monument


	7. Questions and Answers

Dark Knights, Dark Nights

_Chapter Seven: Questions and Answers_

Well, it's time for yet another exciting chapter in the epic quest to avenge a certain pirate. A new ally (an OC) will emerge at the end of the chapter, and if you don't feel like reading the whole thing…

SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT

His codename is Cougar, and they meet him in Valencia, Spain.

SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT

Happy reading, Heaven-Monument

XXXXX

Ivy, Kilik, Xianghua, Lee and Elle were all recovering from Maxi's latest stunt. Lee, of course, wasn't really that angry at Elle; he was being mock angry for Elle's amusement.

Ivy, Xianghua and Kilik had bolted every door, window and entry point in the entire mansion, except for one window. Maxi was still outside as punishment, and Kilik was continually taunting him. 'So Maxi, 's it cold out there? Well, it's not very cold in here. Pity, you look awful cold.' Maxi was silently grinding his teeth, sitting on the ground facing away from Kilik. 'That son of a bi…'

'Right, everyone! I guess we must cook dinner once more, and I'm going to need all your help if we are to eat before midnight. Come on, come on!' Ivy was calling for help with dinner, and Maxi was banging on the door, almost crying because of hunger.

'Pleeeease? I'm dying out here! I'll cook for you!'

Xianghua, out of mercy, unbolted all six locks on the front door, opened it and poked her head out. 'I guess you've learnt your lesson. But,' she said with relish, 'If the dinner is not excellent or better, you stay outside for the night. Come in, Elvis.'

ED: Ignore the fact that Elvis was born in 1935. AU.

Maxi suddenly stopped sobbing, rearranged his face so he was smiling, and ran in with the pace of a sprinter, aiming straight for the kitchen. When he arrived, he donned an apron and chef's hat, and pushed Ivy out of the kitchen.

'What- Maxi, what is going on- Oh please. Can't you see I'm trying to cook dinner?'

'Ivy, let it go. I'm cooking tonight.' Maxi casually replied, reverting back to pirate-like aloofness.

Ivy turned around as Maxi walked back in to the kitchen and located the flour, salt, oil and herbs. 'And what do you suppose you are cooking, Maxi _dearest_?' Ivy tittered, placing emphasis on the last word.

'Roast chicken.' Was the reply from the Dandy of the South Seas. 'And you needn't worry, Ivy _dah-link_. I am an excellent chef. Now, where do you keep your chickens?'

'Chickens? What do you mean?' Ivy spluttered.

Maxi looked at her, still chopping rosemary and sage. 'I mean, your chickens. Alive or dead is fine. For eating! You know? Chicken?'

'Maxi,' Ivy said curtly. 'I do not shop for food very often. My stores are not quite suited for perishables, so I have lived on hams, vegetables such as potato, carrot and turnip, you know. It's not like I can afford to freeze a lake for use as a cooling device! If you want a chicken, go to town and buy one!'

ED: Yes, no refrigerators in the 1600's. Sorry about that.

Maxi returned to his food preparation. 'No, Ivy. I am not accustomed to English ways, much less than, oh, perhaps you. Either you go, or we go hungry.'

Ivy thought about it. 'Even better, I'll get Lee to buy one.'

'Excellent. Send him now.' Maxi said.

Lee, Elle, Xianghua and Kilik were discussing their mission in the lounge.

'So, tell us what you know about Cervantes de Leon.' Elle enquired politely, with the air of someone asking about history.

Kilik obliged. 'Of course. My story revolving around Soul Edge and Soul Calibur begins around six years ago, when the Evil Seed spawned. I was at my home at the Ling Sheng Su Temple in China. It was nearing sunset, and I was turning in for the night. I saw a column of light in the horizon, and suddenly a large amount of evil energy engulfed me, and everyone around me. Then we all started, yeah, it. Um…'

Kilik was a little subdued after that. He cleared his throat. 'The evil energy caused all of us to begin a killing spree. I managed to kill my sworn sister, my friends, my masters. And then, someone knocked me out, and I woke up in an unfamiliar place, like a cave, and I met an old man, Edgemaster. He was the chief trainer-master-person of Ling Sheng Su, and he gave me the Dvapara-Yuga that I showed you. That alone was able to overpower my evil energy that originated from the generation of the Evil Seed.

'And so, I wanted to atone for my sins. I found out that the Evil Seed was caused by a demonic sword, which we know as Soul Edge. The original wielder of it was Cervantes de Leon, the pirate. After being defeated by two women, Sophitia the divine warrior and Taki the demon huntress, Cervantes was effectively dead. Because he uses a twin-sword style, Soul Edge came as two blades. Taki and Sophitia shattered one of the blades, but Sophitia was wounded by the part of Soul Edge that got into her body. Her two children were born with the evil energy inside them.'

'Anyway, Cervantes stayed alive much like Nightmare did; by murdering people and harvesting their souls. He now cannot be beaten unless you shatter his remaining blade. And I guess that's what you want to do. Right?'

Lee and Elle were staring into space.

'GUYS! PAY ATTENTION!'

'Wha- huh? What's going on?' Elle asked dumbly.

Kilik sighed. 'Go confront Cervantes, destroy sword that looks living, he dies. You win.'

Lee sat up, grinning. 'Great! Now, how's dinner going?' He looked around, then got up and walked towards Ivy.

'Oh Lee, I need you to go to town to buy a chicken for dinner. Maxi's making roast chicken, and conveniently, I can't store chicken, so you need to buy it. OK?' Ivy shot at him suddenly.

'Uh,' Lee was caught off-guard by the request. 'Yeah, sure. I'll go now.'

Ivy smiled. 'Here, take this. It should be enough.' She gave Lee ten gold coins.

Lee nodded once, and then walked out the door.

Half an hour later, Lee arrived with a live chicken in his hands.

Xianghua stood up. 'About time, Lee! We're hungry!'

Lee was still struggling to hold the bird. 'Keep your hair on, Xianghua! It's not as easy as it looks to hold a struggling chicken, you know!'

Maxi walked up to Lee, with a small machete in his right hand. 'Giss the chicken, Lee. I'll prepare it now.'

Lee obliged eagerly. Passing the ill-fated bird to the chef, Lee walked to the nearest tap to wash his hands.

A loud squawk emigrated from the kitchen.

'Dinner's almost ready! Just got to skin and cook the bird, should take around an hour or two.' Maxi called.

'Two hours? Are you kidding me?' Kilik replied.

'Well, Kilik,' Maxi said irritably. 'There's a lot of meat in a chicken. And unless you can think of a better way to cook a chicken, tough luck.'

Elle had a brainwave. 'Lee, get your kunai.'

Ivy was confused. 'Kunai? How will that help? We need to cook the chicken, not kill it again!'

'Don't worry Ivy, I've got an idea. Come on Lee!'

Elle leapt of the couch and ran up the stairs to her room, with Lee just behind her.

Two minutes later, Elle and Lee were prepared to present their unorthodox style of cooking with kunais.

Elle was holding court, ordering people around. 'Ivy, place the chicken in the middle of the floor.' Ivy walked forward, and placed the bird in the centre of the empty space.

'Kilik, Maxi, Xianghua, clear the room of anything flammable. There will be plenty of flames around the room, and stand back.'

Elle and Lee stood opposite each other, kunais in hand. The chicken was resting on the floor. The other four fighters held their breath.

Elle looked at Lee. 'Ready?'

'Ready. Let's do it. Hope it works…'

Elle and Lee span their kunai around the other, conjuring a large ball of fire, which they sent towards the chicken. The area around the chicken was covered with smoke for a while, then the two sword masters stopped the inferno…

Xianghua: Don't say that word! I'm already having nightmares about that thing!

ED: Sorry. By the way, you should recognise this as Greed's 2A+B.

…the flamefest and stepped back.

'Et voila! _Roast chicken! Mwahahahahahaha!_' Elle laughed evilly.

'Enough, Elle.' Xianghua said curtly. Elle stopped laughing.

And yes, the chicken was cooked. Not perfectly, but what do you expect? Fan-forced decadence?

As the six of them ate their kunai-roasted chicken, Elle and Lee made plans to track Cervantes down. Ivy was informing them on Cervantes' recent activities.

'As far as I know, he's still in Valencia, Spain, so your best bet is to go there and look for him. More wine?' Ivy asked Elle.

'No thankyou, but it is very good wine. What type is it?' Elle enquired.

Ivy took the bottle, read the label, and said, 'Alicante Bouschet. A Spanish sweet wine from the region of Alicante in Spain. It's quite good with chicken, and this offering is not so bad, eh, Maxi?'

ED: This type of wine was being brewed from 1890, but let it go. Once again, AU.

Maxi wasn't paying attention. He was, rather, deep in conversation with Kilik and Xianghua, and was obviously very drunk, as he was laughing very loudly at the slightest provocation.

Ivy sighed, and took another sip of the wine. 'Ah well.'

Lee wasn't eating much. Elle had noticed that he was deep in thought, and so she asked him what was wrong.

Lee put down his glass of wine. 'Ivy, tell me more about the Evil Seed and the Azure Knight.'

Ivy stopped chewing. 'Wha? You wan me t tl you abou teh ebil see?'

'Swallow, for God's sake Ivy!' Elle retorted.

Ivy swallowed. 'OK, I'm better. So you want me to tell you what I know?'

Lee nodded. 'I want to know more about your father's connection with the Azure Knight. Wasn't he some German guy?'

'True. His name was Siegfried Schtauffen, and when he grasped the hilt of Soul Edge, he became the embodiment of Soul Edge. Nightmare, the Azure Knight, et cetera. I, regretfully, was one of his henchmen. Henchwomen.' She cleared her throat, and swallowed. 'Anyway, I was looking for a way to animate my sword. I did not know it was Nightmare who did it, but when I found out it was, I immediately tried to run away. But there was a golem, Astaroth-'

'Astaroth? Where is he!' Maxi had started his rant. 'I'll kill that son of a biatch! I'm coming for you, you freak! You will regret ever livin-'

'MAXI! Please, we're just talking about the ungrateful swine. He's not here. Please calm down.' Ivy stood up and pointed her sword at him.

'Oh. OK.' Maxi sat down.

'Anyway. There was a golem, Astaroth,' Ivy started again.

'Maxi…' Kilik growled.

'Who called upon some of his less strong clay beings to immobilise me. Luckily, those three came to my rescue, and I live. Hooray.' Ivy drank some more wine.

'Does that answer your question, Lee? Can we eat now?' Elle asked impatiently.

Lee put up his guard. 'Yes, already. I will stop asking questions. You can eat, just get off my back. So, how's the chicken?'

Ivy looked up. 'Great, considering you cooked it with a weapon.'

Lee winked. 'I try.'

After they had finished their dinner, the six of them went to bed. Elle and Lee had made plans to leave Ivy, Kilik, Xianghua and Maxi, and travel to Valencia for clues. Ivy had generously given them around 500 gold coins to pay for food, accommodation, the boat fare, etc. 'And if my sunavabiatch father is there, I want you to mercilessly bash him and burn his remains.' Ivy casually said as they left the next morning. 'Goodbye! You're welcome back anytime!'

'Goodbye Lee! Goodbye Elle! We'll be in China if you need us!' Kilik yelled as the Grandallians left the grounds, giving a final wave to the four others.

'So, Lee, where's the port?' Elle asked as they started their fated journey.

Lee looked around at a crossroads. 'We need to travel back the way we came, and then board a boat to Spain. If we get off in the north of Spain, we can walk to Valencia. But if we have enough money, we'll travel as far as we can.' He suddenly turned right down a lane, ignoring offers from sellers from roadside stalls. Infuriated at his lack of privacy, he unsheathed a dagger and brandished it around 'accidentally', as he later called it, and finally the sellers stopped talking. 'That's better.' Lee said quietly.

An hour later, Lee and Elle had boarded a boat which would take them around a two-day walk away from Valencia. The trip would have cost them two-hundred coins, if not for an event in the middle of the English Channel…

'Good morning sir, ma'am. I trust your slumber was untroubled by discomfort?'

Lee looked up from his breakfast. As there were only seven other passengers, and

There were plenty of crew members to go around, each passenger was treated with excellent service, bordering on having a personal assistant with you.

'Well, sir? How was your stay?' asked the butler.

Lee replied, not looking up from his bacon and eggs. 'Wonderful. If sir would not mind, may he please leave me be for breakfast.'

The butler was taken back by the less-than-warm reply. 'Of course, sir.' Brushing away the imaginary dust on his suit, he walked away and was greeted by his colleagues.

Elle looked at Lee over her morning juice. 'Wow, you can be very patronising in the morning, Lee. What's wrong?'

'You know very well that I don't like being disturbed before I am fully awake.' Lee countered tersely. 'Especially if there is no need to be disturbed.'

'He was only being nice. And come on, isn't it nice to have preferential service?'

'Yes. Whatever you say.' Lee was not in the mood for talking.

The rest of the day passed rather uneventfully, until after lunch. When the passengers were enjoying some light entertainment provided by the crew members, the captain of the ship suddenly yelled, 'PIRATES!'

The whole ship suddenly looked out the windows, and then everyone panicked except for Elle and Lee, who walked quickly to their quarters and picked up some weapons. They then walked to the deck, threw some weapons to the crew, then proceeded to fight them off.

Elle was coping easily with her katana, chopping pirates left, right and centre, even taking three on at once. But for Lee and his wave swords, he had picked a hard fight with the head pirate, who was battling with a dao. Lee was trying to fight by blocking his attacks and countering with kicks, but in the limited space there wasn't much room for improvement.

ED: Stupid puns.

The captain was swearing at Lee, and finally asked as he aimed for Lee's neck. 'Who are you? Don't resist or it will hurt more!'

Lee ducked under the attack and poked him in the gut. 'Lucky for you, I can take you down without any pain. Whether I am nice to you depends on your luck.' Lee kicked his shin, then jabbed him in the head with the tip of the sword four times. The captain was dazed from the fatal attack, and Lee took this opportunity to drop his swords, pick up the man and throw him over the edge of the boat.

At the sight of their fallen leader, the other pirates cowered in fear…

Nightmare: SHUT UP! DON'T USE MY PHRASES!

ED: No, you shut up! You're supposed to be Night Terror now.

Nightmare: Oh. Right. Now I remember.

puff of light

Night Terror: growl

ED: Oops. Shouldn't have reminded him. (runs away)

…cowered in fear and backed away, then jumped back to their ship and sailed away.

The crew members of the friendly ship caught their breath, and then got up and shook Lee and Elle's hands.

'Well done!' 'You guys sure can fight!'

The praise was lavished upon the fighters, and then the captain got up and offered them to give their fare back. Elle and Lee gladly accepted, and the trip was uneventful once more.

Two weeks later, the ship arrived in Valencia's port. Elle and Lee exited, and walked to the town centre to ask people about any Soul Edge-related activities.

'Excuse me, señor. I was wondering if you knew anything about a sword called the Soul Edge.' Elle asked an old man walking into the area.

The man, who looked to be around 50 years old and was wearing all black, with a face covered partially by a black hood, glanced up. 'Soul Edge? Why, that is an evil sword that devours souls! There was a knight that, fair to say, annihilated most of Europe! Don't tell me you are looking for it!' He looked at the pair, concerned.

Lee chuckled. 'No, sir. We are not looking for the sword, we already know the inherent dangers. We were simply wondering if you knew of a pirate named Cervantes.'

The stranger twitched when Lee had said Cervantes' name. 'No, sir. I do not know of this Cervantes. Now, I must leave.' He looked around shiftily, and walked off quickly, not wanting to be heard.

Elle called after him. 'Sir! Sir, do you know anything about Cervantes De Leon?'

The whole crowd of commuters stopped and looked at Elle as if she had just sworn out loud.

The old man walked back to the pair. He spoke quietly. 'The town of Valencia would rather you _not_ talk about that monstrosity. And that's an understatement.'

Lee was taken back. 'Oh jeez. I'm sorry, I didn't know. So does anyone know anything about this,' He looked around, and everyone was still glaring at him and Elle. 'This, pirate man. It.'

The man shook his head. 'The only person who is fit enough to tell you goes by the name of Theresa. Her family was slaughtered by Cervantes, and she now lives in hiding, training with her magical staff for the day that he will rise again.'

Elle looked scared. 'Rise _again_? I thought he was too weak. Anyway, where can we find this woman?'

The old man laughed. 'More like 'girl'. She's only 17 years old, and already the best fighter in Valencia. She's a hermit, but she can be found in the outskirts of the city, that way.' He pointed to the mountain range in the distance. 'Around three days by foot, but I can lend you a horse.'

Elle shook her thoughts of fear away, and forced a smile. 'Thankyou, sir. May I ask your name?'

The man looked at her darkly. 'I cannot tell you my name, for I have gone into exile. I am an assassin, and my codename is Cougar. That is the only name you can call me by now. But if I can trust you, I will tell you my real name.'

Lee nodded politely.

Cougar smiled again. 'So, I shall bring you to my residence to lend you a horse and carriage. I shall come with you, to fight if need be.'

Elle laughed lightly. 'No, señor. That won't be necessary, for we are sword masters. But what do you fight with, incidentally? You could join us on our quest.

'Kunai. Two of them in the Yatsude Ninjyutsu style.'

Lee whistled. 'That's the same style we use. Can we have a look?'

The mysterious man nodded. He took his weapon out, two blunt blades with small handles. The blade was styled unconventionally; it looked like a tall, thin pyramid that had been melted, for the edges of it were as like waves.

ED: Nakinue. Greed's penultimate weapon, before Shutensou.

Elle blinked. 'I've never seen one like that before. Where'd you get it?'

'I'll tell you later. For now,' he said impatiently, 'We have a date with _Theresa_. Follow me.'

And so, the trio walked out of the piazza, with the unrelenting glares of the villagers left in their wake. And as if someone had suddenly pressed the play button on a remote control, everyone began to act normally once again.

XXXXX

WHOO! ANOTHER CHAPPY DONE!

Anyways, this chapter probably went for too long, but a number of questions were answered, and will continue to be answered. Expect violence in the next chapters.

Gimme some feedback on the idea of Cougar! Sorry, will only be using my OC's as far, but if you want your OC's to be included, follow these steps:

Review. Always important.

PM me with your OC's details, and if possible, picture.

Tell me more about your OC: such as personality, age, nationality, etc.

So far, locked in are the following and will NOT be duplicated.

Chinese Sword (Lee)

Katana & Shuriken (Elle)

Kunai (Cougar)

Staff (Theresa)

The following are going to be introduced in the next few chapters and will NOT be duplicated, except if you get in by January 31 2007.

Sickle

Chinese Blade

Rapier

Nunchaku

Soul of Setsuka (the only 'Soul of' discipline being used, by a ninja I will be introducing.)

And most importantly, the five winning OCs' creators will be offered to help me on the story! (Specialists in fight scenes will be considered first.) The deadline is February 28 2007, so get in quick! Limit one entry per member.

Heaven-Monument

Latest News: 100 hits on my prologue for a total of over 200! Keep reading, and most importantly, reviewing!

I really wanna know what you think! Review, PM, e-mail, whatever! I like feedback.

HM


	8. Invitation

**Dark Knights, Dark Nights**

_Chapter Seven: Invitation_

Well, here we go for Chapter Seven! Another OC character shall be introduced in this chapter, and more questions will be answered, more mysteries unveiled, more important information shall be divulged.

Also, if you are interested in my 'Your OC in my story' offer, please note that I require CAS formulae, and any other relevant information with your offer. Such information as age, nationality, personality, etc are expected, nay, demanded! I mean it:-P :-P :-P

Disclaimer (I forgot to do it for the last couple of chapters): Soul Calibur and all related terms are the property of Namco, not the author. Copyright breaches are unintentional. All rights reserved. (Multiply by as many times as I forgot)

-BUT-

I do own Lee, Elle, Cougar, and Theresa. If you use their likenesses in your story, I will get very angry. Touch them, you're dead. XD

XXXXX

At Cougar's house near the Segura River in the Land of Valencia, Cougar invited his visitors in for a drink before they left to see Theresa.

'Now, this is what I know of Theresa and her relationship with Cervantes.

'All of Theresa's family were gathering at a Christening for one of her distant cousins, in the time just after the Evil Seed spawned. Cervantes was looking for some fragments of Soul Edge-'

'You know of Soul Edge?' Elle asked, raising her eyebrows.

Cougar folded his arms. 'Of course I know of Soul Edge. It's, as I said before, a demonic sword that feasts on human souls. Formerly possessed by Cervantes, then it was possessed by some German kid who turned into the Azure Knight. I know the story. Everyone in Europe does, at least.'

Lee nodded politely. 'OK then, have you heard of the Soul Calibur?'

Cougar's face lit up. 'I have heard rumours of it. Is it real?'

'Yep. In fact, we've got it here. Now.'

Cougar didn't even have to ask. Lee took out the blue sword, shining in the golden Spanish sunlight, and Cougar exclaimed out loud. '_Madre dulce de la misericordia! _It exists! Oh Lord, it exists!' He stepped forward, still shocked and excited by the sword, and reverently took it by the handle. And then he dropped it on the kitchen floor.

'Ow! _Hibrido!_' He shook his hand in pain, and looked at Elle as if it was her fault.

Elle looked at him kindly, and with the air of someone explaining to a very over-emotional two-year-old that one and one equals two, said to him, 'Cougar, you must learn to be patient with it. If it senses that you have the will to destroy Soul Edge, it will oblige and hopefully turn into two kunai.'

'But right now we're not going to destroy Soul Edge! We're going to see Theresa!' Cougar complained.

Lee shook his head. 'That doesn't matter. Just focus.'

Cougar pushed the sword back into Elle's hands. 'Right now, it's not important. Now, shall we leave? Or shall we stay here for a while, perhaps have another drink?'

'No, let's go.' Elle said, and then went for the door.

Cougar and Lee followed, and the assassin pointed out his barn. 'I own a large number of horses of various breeds. For now, I will pick my most experienced and gentle horses. Have you ridden a horse before?'

'Yeah.' Elle resisted the urge to add, 'Duh!'

'Good.' Cougar continued. 'Now, Elle, was it? Yes. Hop onto that horse, and Lee, mount that horse over there.' And he pointed to a horse which was currently engaging in some… business.

ED: If you don't know what I mean by that you need to find a list of euphemisms. Now.

'Gee, thanks.'

Cougar chuckled. 'Don't mention it. I mean, it was the least I could do.'

Cougar shook off the interruption. 'Now, the place at which she stays is a cathedral in Valencia. It is now defunct, and fenced off. It is strictly out of bounds, but lucky for us, the sun has almost set. By the time we get there, there should be no-one around except for the city guards. And then they leave by around eight o'clock.' He looked at the duo of swordsmen.

Elle: Swords_women!_

ED: OK! Shut up! If you keep interrupting me I shall aim a bolt of lightning at you and your hair will look like Yun-Seong's 2P costume.

Lee: Who's Yun-Seong?

ED: Never mind.

'We need to be in and out in one hour, preferably alive and with Theresa persuaded. Got that?'

Elle nodded. Lee wasn't listening, for his horse was again engaging in business.

The three of them, with horses and weapons in check, began riding to the city.

'So, Cougar continue your story. I believe the author has told me in secret that you stopped talking about it when you mentioned Soul Edge.' Elle said casually to the hooded man.

'True. Now, as I said, Cervantes was looking for fragments of Soul Edge. At that time, Theresa's father kept one shard locked up in his house, for he knew of the inherent dangers of the sword. Cervantes was weak and needed shards and souls to stay, well, the equivalent of alive. He was dead, but he walks. You know what I mean.' Cougar looked at Elle.

'I know. Continue.' She replied.

'Theresa's family was walking back to their house, with the shard in check. Ever since her father was threatened by bandits for the shard, he kept it with him, thinking he was strong enough to withstand it. He wasn't and it would have eventually destroyed his mind, but there wasn't the time. They were resting at home, when Cervantes burst through the door and slayed them all. Luckily Theresa had her staff in hand, and fought a vicious battle, that Theresa narrowly won. Cervantes ran away with the shard, and Theresa hasn't been the same since.' Cougar sniffed, and wiped away a tear.

Elle was interested. 'So how do you know all this? Are you related?'

'Oh, no.' Cougar laughed lightly. 'I was there. In fact, I saw Cervantes walking to the house, and I tried to stop him, but I was gravely injured in that encounter.'

At this time, Lee was actually listening to Cougar's influential story. 'Why were you there?' He asked gravely.

Cougar looked at him. 'I was on a mission to retrieve the shard myself. I was ordered by my superiors to assassinate Theresa's father and take the shard back to Bird of Passa- oh, I've said too much.'

'_You're with Bird of Passage?_' Elle was outraged, but Lee was merely surprised.

'Was; Past tense, Elle. I _was_ with Bird of Passage, but after the spawning of the Evil Seed several years ago, the organisation broke up. Only I and my superiors were left, and desperately tried to re-organise the group. We failed, and I left. I vowed to change my ways. I tried to join the Spanish army, and then after they rejected me because of my past, I fled to Dalkia and tried to join their army. They rejected me. After that, I joined Grandall's army for six months, and then I returned to Spain.'

'Dalkia? Boy, you have an interesting past.' Lee chuckled. 'Anyway, do you know of an assassin with Bird of Passage called Tira? She's, um,' He took out the calling card he had found on Elle's bed many weeks ago at Ivy's house. 'Assassin No. 48.'

Cougar swore under his breath. 'Yes. But I do not wish to speak of her.'

'That's alright then.' Elle countered offhandedly. In Elle's mind, she did not want to talk of her either.

It was nearing sunset, and the outskirts of Valencia were quiet, save for some people scurrying home, and the few guards on patrol, with swords in scabbards, lanterns in hand, and a swagger about them.

'Security has been tightened up tenfold after the events of two months ago.'

Cougar was musing over past memories again. Elle and Lee woke up from their own thoughts, and seeing that he was talking again, they decided to listen again.

'Why?' Elle inquired. 'What happened?'

Cougar dismounted his horse, tied him to a railing outside a saloon…

ED: Is that the right word? Meh, whatever.

…saloon, paid the valet, of sorts, and began walking to the centre of town. Elle and Lee looked at each other like they had upset him, quickly dismounted, and ran after him with their weapons in check. For the day's mission, Elle had chosen a dagger, and Lee had chosen a thin katana.

Cougar noticed that his companions were catching up, and decided that he should tell them. He sighed. 'It was a normal day in Valencia, and the marketplace was swarming with people. I, myself, was buying some provisions for my pantry, when some people on the west side of the piazza screamed. Cervantes was back, and more powerful than ever. I seemed to be the only one other than the guards who had a weapon, so I dropped by bags, unsheathed my kunai and began to fight him.'

'You're kidding. Doesn't anyone carry weapons in Spain?' Lee asked, exasperated.

Cougar gave him a look that plainly said, 'No, you stupid boy. No one carries weapons in Spain because there isn't a war going on!'

'OK. So, did you win?' The sword master inquired.

'No. Once again, I was humiliated by some evil pirate guy. Luckily, I wounded him enough for the guards to immobilise him. They threw him into the local prison, but obviously because of the guards' stupidity and drunkenness, he escaped very easily.' Cougar spat on the ground in disgust. 'And so, here we are. _La catedral de la Valencia._'

The cathedral was more like a chapel, Lee thought. It was only fifteen feet high at its steeple, and with only three windows at the front. The garden, of sorts, was overridden by weeds and general neglect. A figure could be seen praying near the altar. Lee looked at Cougar. He smiled. 'That, sir, is our girl.'

Lee started laughing. 'You have got to be kidding me! She's a teenager! Are you telling me a _teenager_ can overwhelm all of Valencia's guards, and potentially destroy the first vessel of Soul Edge if she tried? Even we aren't that good!'

Cougar shot him another of his 'looks' that could wipe the smile off a child who had received five Christmases at once. 'Do not delude yourself, boy. She is rumoured to be a level 94.'

'What? That's around twenty levels higher than me!' Lee exclaimed.

Elle, however, was thoughtful. 'I wonder who would win out of her and that guy in the outskirts of Parousia. That level 99 guy with the crazy katana, um,' She clicked her fingers repeatedly. 'Ende. Yeah, that's the guy. He was hard to beat; luckily Ailian finished him off. She levelled up about five times from that expedition.'

She sighed contentedly. 'Good times, good times…'

The trio walked through the door. Theresa was praying so deeply that the presence of intruders didn't even register. Lee was about to call out, but Cougar covered his mouth.

'Theresa? Is that you?' Cougar called out emotionlessly.

As if woken from a coma, Theresa started, picked up her staff, and turned around.

'I have told you time and time again that you are not welcome to come here.' She looked at Cougar, with an emptiness in her eyes that wasn't normal in a human.

Cougar dropped his weapons on the floor, as did Lee and Elle. 'We come in peace, Theresa. We request that you join us on a mission. Your skills would be appreciated beyond what you can fathom.'

She scoffed. 'Is this another of your desperate pleas for forgiveness? I do not forgive easily. I try so hard, but I cannot let it go. You say that we are allies, united on a common quest. I beg to differ.'

Theresa took her staff in her hand and made it grow in size until it resembled a roshakubo. 'For one thing, you wish to kill the immortal pirate, saying it is revenge. Your motive couldn't be any further from revenge; your motive is simply saving your reputation. You have failed to knock him out, how many times now? Is it three? Four?' She smirked, and her eyes flashed red. 'It is not enough. My motive is much nobler; I seek to avenge my whole family. He killed more than twenty of my closest relatives for his own personal gain. The selfish creature of hell murdered many people just to keep himself 'alive'.'

She advanced on the group. 'Now, leave this place. You can do it yourself in one piece, or I can organise you to be thrown out forcibly in several pieces. Your choice. You have five seconds.'

'But-' Lee started.

'Four.'

'We just-' Elle said before being cut off.

'Three seconds.' Theresa was playing with them now.

'Theresa, you can't do this!' Cougar cried in vain.

'Two seconds. Last chance; one second; times up.'

She leapt forward, and twirled her staff around her body, continually jumping over all low attacks, ducking high pokes, and easily sidestepping downward strikes. Frequently she would leap high into the air and crush someone's guard, or parry each attack and aim a grapple at their side, which her opponents would easily fall for.

Cougar was faring the worst; he was trying to fight with a cut leg, several bruises on his head, and missing one kunai. Lee tried to distract her with several slashes and grapples, while Cougar tried to grab her from the back and dump her over his shoulder. Theresa foresaw this act, gracefully back flipped, and landed behind Cougar. Before he had any time to react, she had jumped onto his back, jumped away and thrown her staff at the small of his neck. Cougar was out for the count.

Fortunately, Lee was doing such a good job in distracting and countering Theresa's strikes that Elle was able to rush over to Cougar, take his single remaining kunai and revert to Yatsude Ninjyutsu moveset. She leapt several metres in the air and bodyslammed Theresa while she was busy, and the two women were on the ground. Elle leapt up again, and did a double somersault kick that left Theresa winded. Lee took the opportunity to kick Theresa extremely high, and then he took a running jump into the air, caught Theresa, did a somersault in mid-air, and slammed her on the ground. Theresa was immobilised.

'So, have you thought over our proposition yet?' Lee chortled. He gave Elle a high-five, and took Theresa's weapon and threw it to the other side of the building.

Cougar sat up, nursing his wounds. Elle noticed his consciousness, and ran over. 'Cougar! Are you alright? Here's your kunai.'

The assassin shook his head in an attempt to rouse himself. 'Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks,' He noticed that Elle was handing back his kunai, 'but we're going to need the other one. Well done, by the way.' He glanced at the semi-conscious Theresa, who was being tended to by Lee.

Elle smiled, but the smile faltered at the sight of Theresa. 'Yeah.' She seemed to be lost in thought.

'Elle?'

She shook out of her stupor. 'I'm back. OK, let's find your missing weapon.'

The two of them searched all around the church, under the altar, under all the pews, near windows and doors, but they couldn't find it anywhere.

'Guys? I think you might be looking for this.' Theresa was speaking at last.

In her hand was the kunai. She threw it a remarkably long way, directly at Cougar's chest. He caught it by the tips of his fingers, and raised his eyebrows at Theresa. She smirked.

'What do you want?' She asked calmly.

Cougar sighed. 'You know what we want. A chance to talk to you without you brandishing your weapon. The whole town is scared of you!'

'Really?' Theresa idly looked at her nails. 'I never knew that,' she said sarcastically.

Elle piped up. 'Why are you so sceptical about interacting with others?'

Theresa's eyes pierced into Elle's gaze. 'Because I don't want to. The town looks at me like I'm a monster. They're scared of what they don't know.'

'True, but we are giving you a chance to prove yourself. To mend your reputation in the town's eye.'

She suddenly stood up. 'I don't want that. 'Mend my reputation in the town's eye' is the last thing on my mental to-do list.' Besides, I wouldn't consider your offer. You did, remember, attempt to murder my father. If you had, you would be dead, or at least permanently incapacitated. Sino can do plenty of damage.'

'Who's Sino?'

Theresa wiggled her finger. 'Sino is not a person. It is the name of my staff. Sino, in English, means _fate_.'

'But back to the point. Considering that I have rejected your offer already, you might as well tell me.'

Lee barked abruptly. 'To kill Cervantes.'

'_What?_' She spat out the glass of water Elle had just provided her with. 'That's my job! How dare you even _think_ that you are going to take away _my_ destiny!'

'Ah ah. _Our_ destiny. You see,' Lee recited like a poem, 'the one whom you call Cervantes not only murdered your family, but part of ours too.'

She sat up. 'Go on. I'm intrigued.'

'Approximately three months ago, we decided to avenge our father. He had, around three years before the occurrence of the Soul Calibur, hunted Cervantes down, intent on taking the Soul Edge to further profit the Grandall army. Of course, Cervantes, being the evil soul that he is, killed him.'

'And took his soul.' Elle added. She set a glass of water in front of Cougar and Lee.

'So the news came back around three months after he died. We were only six and five, respectively, so there wasn't much we could do about it, except train very hard for the day that we would leave. Our mother helped so much.' Lee stopped, and took a breath.

'Four years later. The Azure Nightmare, formerly Siegfried Schtauffen, was rampaging across Europe, gaining power, minions and fragments of Soul Edge. Luckily the Knight himself didn't come to Grandall, but a large number of berserkers with battle axes and lances were raging over the land. Elle, our mother, and I fended off most of them. Being only ten, and nine years old, it took quite a while to take them all out, but nonetheless, we were treated as heroes.'

'And then the story of the myth of the Soul Calibur emerged. The Emperor of the time, Strife's father, wanted more information. The Soul Calibur, at the time, was sucked into the void along with the first incarnation of Nightmare, and the flame form of Soul Edge, so information was limited to those who saw it. Those people were a small group of Asians, Kilik, Xianghua and Maxi. We met them on the way here. Xianghua was the fated one who defeated Inferno twice, and then Nightmare-Inferno again.'

'But there were still stray fragments of Soul Edge floating around, and unfortunately Cervantes took most of them. These fragments made his already great power grow exponentially.'

Lee paused, and took a sip. 'To make his Soul Edge complete, he needed one more decently sized fragment of Soul Edge, which he took from your family.'

'So now…' Theresa began.

'…Cervantes has more power than the original Nightmare.' Cougar said, speaking from the shadows.

Elle exclaimed. 'You can't be serious. Really?' She looked around. Lee nodded grimly.

'Great.' The swordmistress stood up, and stretched.

'Well, Theresa, our offer's rejection notwithstanding, thankyou for your time. Lee, Cougar, we're going.' She took her dagger, and proceeded to walk out the main doors of the church.

Lee also stood up, and pulled a reluctant Cougar up. 'Well, thankyou Theresa. If you truly wish to defeat Cervantes, we shall meet again.' Lee and Cougar shook Theresa's hand, and followed Elle out the exit.

'Wait!' Theresa called. 'I want to come with you.'

Elle's jaw dropped. She turned around to see Theresa stand up, retrieve her staff, and run to catch up.

'Really?' Cougar smiled. He ran up to her and hugged her.

Theresa pushed him off. 'OK. Just because we're allies doesn't mean we're friends.'

'So, why did you all of a sudden accept your offer?' Lee was mock sceptical.

Theresa brushed some hair offer her face. 'Because I realised that if Cervantes is out to get us all, the more the merrier.' She sighed shakily. 'I want to do my part.'

'OK then! Pack your belongings, and we can leave.' Lee directed.

XXXXX

How's that for suspense? Hope you enjoyed it! Sorry for the wait, my internet is down at the time at writing (18 January 2007). Damnable BigPond.

All further chapters may take longer to update, because school starts in early February. Don't kill me. But as an added bonus, most future chapters may contain additional OC's! So by the end of the story expect to see around 20 OC's. You may want to keep a list of characters if you don't have a good memory. XD

Keep them offers and reviews coming in!

Heaven-Monument

EDIT (23 Jan): 300 hits! YAY!


	9. Persuasion

**Dark Knights, Dark Nights**

_Chapter Eight: Persuasion_

Hey hey, I'm back! It's time to introduce yet another major character: OSCAR!

streamers, balloons, marching bands, street parade, flyers stating 'OSCAR'S BACK!' stream from the sky

Then again, I'm a little disappointed in some of you guys who said they'd give me a formula by 28th February. None have been received and I ain't extending it. As my friend says, tough bikkies.

Yeah, I know. He reckons that the term 'consensual rape' is interesting. I told him it's only funny the first six times.

Enjoy! R&R – I now have a whopping FIVE reviews! Yay!

XXXXX

The quartet waltzed out of the cathedral. As they walked back to Cougar's house, occasionally dodging and immobilising the guards who were foolish enough to spot them, Theresa happily disclosed information about the new Cervantes, and her theories on his new power.

'So, I know that Cervantes, after being beaten by the divine warriors, was severely weakened. The stupid knight Siegfried Schtauffen took one of Cervantes' blades, and there goes the Evil Seed.'

'The years passing that event were extremely difficult for Cervantes. He had a small fragment in his body, and the female half of Soul Edge somewhere. He, like Nightmare, had to gather souls to stay alive. One week without a soul and he would crumple into dust. All through the events of the re-awakening of Nightmare-Inferno two years ago, he had to stay powerful. He reclaimed the Soul Edge momentarily to defeat a demon, but lost it after he was defeated. He ran away, half-dead. A man with a giant scythe took the Soul Edge and the Soul Calibur, and fused them together to achieve his own death. It went horribly wrong; that man is in a coma now.' Theresa sighed, and made the sign of the cross.

'The after effects of such a botched experiment resulted in the creation of a demon ten times more powerful than the demon I mentioned before. Of course,' she looked at Elle and Lee to her right, 'They have no relation to each other. And I am sure that the previous demon is dead. Or equivalent.' She chuckled.

'Wait, wait.' Cougar was confused. 'You say that the man was in a coma. Then how did you get the information?'

Theresa sighed. 'I forced it out of him, and then I had to put him in that coma.'

'What?' Lee stopped, incensed. 'How could you do that?'

'His motives were detrimental to the plan.' She paused, readjusted her top, and continued walking, but slower than before. 'He wanted to regain strength and destroy the demons single-handedly. He would obviously have failed, and made the demons stronger.'

'OK, so now what? Oh, here we are.' Cougar motioned to his house by the river.

They walked through the door, and the assassin lit a fire and ignited the stove.

'Well, there's only one thing to do. Visit this man, defeat the demons, and destroy the Soul Edge once and for all.' Elle leant back casually. 'We're going to need some help. Soul Edge, while beaten for a year at a time by Xianghua and her friends, is a power not to be underestimated.' She gratefully accepted a mug of warm milk. 'So, we must make plans to find this man.'

'Er, no. You can't do that.' Theresa was on the verge of tears. 'I put him into a coma six months ago. He may be-' She choked back a sob. 'dead by now. And it's entirely my fault!' She started crying uncontrollably. Elle immediately ran to hug her.

Lee sighed. 'Theresa, all people act rashly at one point in time. And the more brilliant a person such as yourself, the larger and more spectacular their mistakes are! You can't blame yourself for one bad decision; rather, you must look back, judge the deed, and learn from it.' He looked at Cougar for support. 'Right?'

Cougar started. 'Um, yeah! Of course. We'll help you fix your mistake.'

Theresa had stopped crying since then. 'OK. But we're going to need to find someone very powerful in the healing department first.'

A metaphorical light bulb exploded near Elle's head. 'I know just the person. Oscar the Benevolent.'

She found a bedroom and went to sleep.

The next day, the four packed their belongings and made the fateful trip back to Grandall to meet the man that had suggested the notion of the Soul Edge to Lee's father, Robert.

'Yeah, still some hard feelings towards him. On the plus side, he's incredibly knowledgeable and a very skilled fighter.' Elle said conversationally.

They paid for a fare from Valencia's port, and by chance managed to board the same ship that they did on the way in. The crew bowed to Lee, Elle and Theresa, but averted their eyes and backed away when Cougar walked on.

Theresa smirked lightly. 'What did you do?'

Cougar laughed. 'Oh, nothing, Just something to do with a slow acting poison and a threat to divulge personal information about the captain and his wife. And a laxative.'

'Really?' Elle's eyes opened wide, while Theresa chuckled, then gave Cougar a reproachful look. 'No wonder they avoided your oh-so-charming eyes.'

They were allocated to the king's suite, in recognition of their achievements on the previous trip. Cougar dumped his bags on the four-poster, while Theresa took them off and set up the other three beds. 'I propose that Lee gets the four-poster.' Theresa said to the others. Lee looked at her.

'Well, I'd say that Elle deserves it. She's a pretty good fighter.' He said the second part very softly. And although Lee hated to admit it, that statement was true.

'What was that?'

Lee looked around shiftily, to see that Elle had her hands on her hips, smiling. 'Nothing, sister. You get the big bed. I,' He stopped, carefully looking around, 'call the porthole bed.' He dashed to the bed near the only external light source.

Theresa groaned. 'No fair!' She threw her luggage mercilessly on her bed, and trudged over.

The trip to Grandall was uneventful, at best. Travelling around the UK to the Scandinavian countries, then to the north of Russia where the route to Grandall was located, took a little over a month. In that time, they had formulated a plan, and had retrieved information from a crew member, for a price, of course. They were ready to talk to Oscar as soon as they had reached the small village of Arthias, named after the rebel group that Lee had made in the events of the post-Dalkian fall in the Mantis Wars.

Two weeks later, they had arrived. The brother and sister showed their guests the picturesque land, before showing them to their mother's house.

They knocked three times on the door. No-one answered. Now rather concerned, Elle opened the door and led the group in. There was movement in the far room, where their mother slept. A shadow clutched a long, thin blade. A woman seemed to be pleading with the figure, who was possibly planning to wound the woman. Elle approached cautiously, putting down her bags very quietly.

'No, stop! I'm not the one you want! Aaaargh!...'

Elle burst in, to see Oscar himself pressing his jian against Elle's mother's neck. Elle leapt across and grabbed the jian out of his hands, ignoring the pain it caused. Lee ran in, dao in hand. Oscar's eyes were not the blue that they normally were, but a brilliant, opalescent white. He kicked Elle in the face, and she recoiled, holding her nose. Lee went in and slashed at Oscar's chest. The strike drew blood, but Oscar ignored it completely and continued to fight.

'Guys! Ged in here!' Elle shouted out the door, and picked up her mother and dragged her in the hallway so that she wouldn't be hurt.

Theresa ran in and extended her staff so it hit Oscar in the forehead, just before he would punch Lee in the face. He fell backwards, while Lee took the cheap shot and kicked his sword into Oscar's stomach. Cougar performed a sleeper hold on Oscar, and the possessed man stopped thrashing about. His eyes were still bright, opaque white. Lee took out the Dvapara-Yuga that Kilik had entrusted to him and dangled it in front of his face. The evil energy swarmed out of Oscar's every orifice and pore, and was banished by the Holy Stone. Before the mist escaped, Theresa drew it back in, and she drew it into her staff.

ED: Ring a bell anyone?

Cougar was panting. 'What was that?'

Lee was clutching a stitch, while Theresa was tending to Elle's bleeding and clearly broken nose. 'I don't know,' said the sword master, 'but I didn't like it.'

Lee's mother crawled inside, nursing a cut on the left side of her neck. Lee glanced around, and at the sight of his injured parent, dashed over to help her. 'Mother! Are you okay?'

She groaned in pain. 'Kind of. The cut's not deep. Can you go get the bandages?' Lee nodded and hastened to get it.

Meanwhile, Oscar was still half-dead. Theresa was observing the energy in her staff, and Cougar was packing up the room; it had been messed up after the fight. Elle was walking to the dresser to see the damage done, and the sight wasn't pretty. Her nose had been shifted to the left, blood was crawling all over her face and she had a large, yet shallow cut on her palms. She walked out of the room to meet Lee and take some bandages.

Oscar stirred, and blinked several times. Cougar placed the lamp in his hand on the floor, and walked over. Taking the sage's jian and placing it far from where he could reach, he knelt down and shook him lightly. 'Can you hear me?' He asked. The formerly possessed being groaned and nodded.

Cougar took the opportunity to inform him on the situation, speaking very slowly and clearly. 'You were possessed by some evil energy. We came in and took the energy out of your body. You need to tell us how you became possessed.' Oscar's left hand, which was near his left pocket, twitched. Cougar picked his hand up, but saw a glinting object in his pocket. He took it out. It was a small phial of purple liquid, with the label reading 'Surface Healing Potion'. Cougar saw the blood oozing from his stomach, and took a risk. Ripping the tunic off him, he poured a drop of the potion in the middle of the gaping wound. It healed at once, from the inside out. Pouring more of the potion around all of Cougar's wounds, the flesh sealed before the assassin's eyes.

Lee walked back in. 'The wound wasn't hard to trea- what is that?' He pointed at the small flask. Cougar sighed. He rotated the phial to make the label face Lee. He read it.

'Surface Healing Potion? Another of his hare-brained inventions?' Lee also sighed, but was still amused. 'So, does it work?'

Cougar's skill at communicating without talking was excellent. He pointed to Oscar's stomach.

'But I thought that I cut that open… ah…' With yet another sigh, but this time of recognition, he inspected the wound. 'Oscar's still in excellent shape, I see.'

Theresa spoke up at last. 'Does this man live nearby? Maybe there's more of this solution.'

Cougar smiled. 'Good idea.'

'I'm all out, sorry.'

The three of them turned to face the sage.

Oscar sat up. 'You know, you sigh a lot, Lee. How are you? And who might these people be?'

Lee pulled the man up, and shook his hand. 'This is Cougar, a former assassin, and this is Theresa, an old friend/enemy of his. I can't really tell. We met them in Spain. They're here to help us destroy Cervantes.' Then he shot the sage a sharp look. 'You should know; you sent our father there.'

'And I completely regret telling him that.' Oscar replied smoothly. 'I have, in my house, some home remedies to mend your wounds.' He beckoned for all of them to follow him.

As Theresa and Elle walked out, Theresa inquired, 'Home remedies?'

Elle laughed. 'Yeah, it's a euphemism. Really, it's a vast archive of various potions, concoctions, solutions, _et al_. Nothing to worry about; they're completely natural.'

Oscar's house was down the road from Lee's mothers. A small one-bedroom house with an extensive basement, Oscar had lived there ever since his parents had died. It was there that he taught Elle and Lee the art of Hei Sheng Jian Shu, their jian fighting style. His jian was called the Rune Blade; he had created it himself one day in a fit of self-determination and excessive alcohol consumption.

ED: In the words of Homer Simpson, 'Alcohol – the cause, and solution, of all of life's problems.'

They walked in the door, and straight into the basement. Lighting a lamp, Oscar walked down the stairs, then stopped. '_Et voila_, the basement.'

Wall-to-wall shelves completely full of variously coloured liquids. Flasks, vials, test tubes, bottles, flagons, even barrels of different creations. 'How do you like it? This here,' he took a violently orange bottle from a shelf, 'is a solution to improve the quality of your skin and nails. Here,' he gave the bottle to Theresa and chose a flask of clear liquid stoppered with an ornate diamond, 'is my finest quality all-purpose sedative. All of this, in one gulp, can put you in a coma. That's why it says on the label, 'Maximum Strength'.' He put the bottle back.

Cougar noticed a shelf that was blocked by a stained glass fronting. 'Hey, what's in here?' A small glass plaque underneath the shelf read, 'DANGER: EXTREMELY DANGEROUS'.

Oscar yelped. 'Don'ttouchitdon'ttouchit! Those are, as it says, extremely dangerous. If you even tap this one here,' he pointed to a test tube with a couple of drops of an oily yellow mix, 'it will explode and cause your body to melt from the inside out. Not nice. So, don't touch it!'

Theresa gaped. Lee was laughing at the notion of someone melting. 'So much for all natural.' Elle grumbled, raising one eyebrow.

Oscar didn't notice, and was briskly moving on. 'Now, I mentioned before that I was out of my Surface Healing Potion, but I'll make some more.'

And so, the benevolent sage took out bottles, pills, powders, solutions, plants, herbs, spices, and other important yet stupid-sounding things. Mixing, grinding, shaking, think-of-another-verb-ing, he never stopped until a healthy dose of that violet panacea was drained into a beaker. 'Mixed with water, then drunk, is less dangerous and more pleasant than the surface version. This is the liquid syrup.' He said, giving a mug to Elle and her mother. 'It's also good as a general detoxifier, or for regular bodily maintenance. If you take this solution once a month, you can boost your immune system, prevent digestive problems, strengthen your bones, and restore the balance in your stomach.' He passed more mugs to Theresa and Cougar, before setting one down in front of him.

'So, let's get down to business.' He set down his mug. And suddenly changing his expression to one of deep scepticism, he asked, 'what brings you here? Are you here to punish me for making a mistake?'

'Oh, no. We wouldn't dream of doing such a thing.' Elle replied cheerfully. 'Not today, more like.' She added under her breath.

Lee saw her mutterings and hastily moved on. 'No, we came here to seek clues about the man you recommended to my father. Cervantes de Leon, aka the Dread Pirate.' And then he turned 'bureaucratic', as Elle put it, that is to say, his voice lost all enthusiasm and he spoke monotonously, like a bureaucrat. 'Cervantes De Leon, Former wielder of Soul Edge, father of Isabella 'Ivy' Valentine nee De Leon, the man who killed one Robert Starkey plus countless others, former ally-ish person of the Azure Nightmare, et cetera, et cetera.' He cleared his throat and once again spoke with the vigour and eagerness that was Lee Starkey. 'So, yeah.'

Theresa piped up. 'We need your help on tracking him down, Oscar. After that, we can take him down, for Robert's sake, for my family's sake, for everyone's sake. You in?'

'Well,' he sighed contemptuously, 'I'd advise against doing that for several reasons.'

'Firstly,' he began, counting on his fingers, 'I have been monitoring his movements for the past few years. He has acquired many fragments of Soul Edge, most likely taken from the late Nightmare's body and sword, so therefore this is Nightmare the Second – Spanish Style.

'Secondly, if we were to assume the former was correct, then we'd be up against an entity far stronger than you have ever seen before. This is worse than that Ende guy. Way worse. I'm saying a HP in excess of 900. Worse than Strife, even. Complete with purple glow.'

'And thirdly, Soul Edge is now so powerful that any within five metres or so is immediately transformed into a berserker.' Oscar folded his hands delicately.

Cougar spat out his potion. 'Five metres?'

'Cougar, don't worry. Remember, we have the solution to that…' Elle took out the blue stone and waved it in front of Oscar's face. 'This is known as Dvapara-Yuga. Also known as the Holy Stone, the purpose of this is to draw out evil energy and banish it.'

'Yuga, you say?' Oscar mused.

No-one made a noise.

'Um, Oscar? You still with us?' Theresa looked at him, tilting her head.

'Yuga… Kali… Krita… Dvapara… Treta… Kali…' he murmured softly.

And lo, the blue stone sailed out of Elle's hand, and Lee's pocket, and melded into one stone which dangled in front of his eyes.

'How- what- when- huh?' Lee was lost for words.

'Long story. I'll tell you when the time is right.' Oscar said without turning his head or averting his eyes from the sacred glow.

Finally, he shook his head. 'All questions will be answered. All mysteries unveiled. All philosophies understood. All fears, all lies melted away. All sadness vanished. All doubts destroyed. All evil vanquished.'

ED: If you're familiar with Kingdom Hearts, one of those statements should be familiar.

He stood up and clapped his hands. The Dvapara-Yuga returned to the siblings. 'We need a plan.' He began haphazardly gathering his belongings. 'If we don't right this evil, it will take over the world again. So I advise that you take your bags because we're going on a journey.'

'Yeah, we are. But you need to sit down because we already have a plan. By the way, does this mean you're in?' Elle asked.

'Of course. You better have a good plan involved; the evil will triumph without our interruption on precisely… 161 days. So, if today's the 14th of September, then the final showdown will commence on… Friday, 22nd February.'

Lee picked up his two bags, attaching his sword to his belt and placing the stone in his carrying pouch on his belt. 'I think it's time to go. We need to search for a man, most likely in Egypt or surrounding areas.'

Cougar yawned. 'So what are we waiting for? Let's go!'

XXXXX

Oh em gee! It's finally done!

By the way, I've planned by whole story out, it should be 32 chapters, plus the chapter where I give you my character creation formulae if you choose to use them.

Expect the next chapter, 'flirtatious', to be uploaded by early-mid March. More reviews faster upload. It's a reversible equation.

By the way, that date and the whole 'All X will be Y' thing is very important, it will most definitely occur in later chapters.

Take care,

HM


	10. Flirtatious Part One

**Dark Knights, Dark Nights**

_Chapter Nine: Flirtatious (Part One)_

After much deliberation, and the conception of a new plot summary, I can now begin the next chapter. In this part, the group will discover more about Zasalamel and the inherent danger they place themselves in.

Also, this is the longest part yet – it comes in two chapters.

Enjoy! HM

XXXXX

'So, what's your plan?' Oscar quipped.

Elle groaned. 'That's the sixth time you have asked us that. If that sign there,' she pointed to a large sign saying 'GRANDALL PORT', 'is any indication, we're sailing to Egypt, by going around Norway and England, then through the stretch of the Mediterranean Sea, then to Northern Egypt to find the man. Are you finished, or do I have to knock you out with my shuriken?'

'No. I'll shut up.'

Oscar was being a downright idiot along the way to the port, or at least everyone thought. Everything from taking leaves and stuffing them down Theresa's back, to mimicking Cougar's every action, but with an added layer of disdainful disrespect. To put it lightly, tensions were running high. Lee almost took his jian and snapped it on his knee, but restrained himself just in time.

They arrived at the empty port. Conveniently, only two ships were there – a large cruise liner, and a small boat about the size of a tug. Lee, grinning at the large fortune in his carrying belt, walked towards the larger boat. Theresa and Cougar followed, but Elle had snapped and was wrestling Oscar.

'Elle! What are you doing?' Theresa scolded.

Elle swore quietly. 'Trying to get this _moron_ off me! Idiot thinks he can take away my sword… _OSCAR!_' she shrieked, and punched him in the chest. 'Take that!'

Lee sighed. 'Oscar, how old are you?'

'45, and still good looking.' He smirked.

'And yet you act like a 12-year-old sometimes. How I wonder…' Lee mumbled to himself, and then looked up.

'Oh no! The boat's leaving!' Theresa cried, seeing the large cruise liner take off.

The group sprinted towards it, but to no avail. Cougar tripped over and fell in the ocean, but he swam back to shore.

He spat out seawater. 'OK. That is the last time I travel with this _loon_,' he nodded towards Oscar. He walked forward and thumped Oscar in the head with Nakinue.

'Ow! What was that for?' He whimpered.

Cougar lost it. _'You damn well know what it was for! You, fooling around while we try to get information on a demon residing in a country three months away by boat! I should kill you here and now!' _He ran forward, about to knock him square in the jaw, but Theresa intervened and directed his punch away, causing him to flip over and land evenly on his back.

'Don't hurt yourself trying to hurt others. Rule Six of the Ruyi Staff Arts Code of Conduct. Also applies to life.' She walked away, to the other, smaller boat.

A buxom woman, wearing a pristine, thick white jacket, and a pair of blue fitted pants, turned around and faced Theresa. 'Hello there! May I help you?' She asked, in a rich, Italian-accented voice.

Theresa blinked. _Dominatrix,_ she thought. 'Uh, yes! I, and my four friends, would like to get to Egypt. Do you offer cross-continental services on your boat, the, um,' she paused, looking at the boat. Painted on the hull was the name '_Donnatella_', but to Theresa, it looked uncomfortably like '_Dominatrix_'.

'On the _Donnatella_. Do you think you can get us to Northern Egypt?'

She laughed. 'The _Donnatella_ can get us anywhere, from Grandall to the New World, to New Holland and anywhere in between. She's built to withstand any a storm.'

_Dominatrix, with a masculine streak._ Theresa shuddered.

Elle peered over. 'Ah, I see you have found us a willing captain. I'm Elle, this is Lee, this is Cougar, and _that_ is Oscar.'

The woman burst out laughing, and then stopped, looking at Oscar. 'Well, _hello,_ gorgeous. I'm Alessandra; you can call me Sandy.'

The sage went all Raphael-like…

Elle: Who's Raphael?

Me: You'll meet him at the end of the story.

…and said smoothly, 'Well, hello, milady. Care to join me on a pleasure cruise?'

Sandy almost fainted, but then realised what he was trying to say. She snatched up her rapier, which was resting on the table she was sitting at, and twirled her left hand elegantly. The rapier just missed Oscar's neck, but came close enough to scare the living hell out of him.

Oscar quickly stood to attention, grabbing his Rune Blade from his luggage. 'Well, aren't you a feisty one.' He poked his sword at her, and she parried it sophisticatedly, then roundhoused him into the wall. He Ukemied, and aimed a horizontal sweep at her ankles, which she blocked with her rapier at a 90º angle. With a great deal of force, she lifted her sword from underneath his, causing him to turn around. Oscar quickly lashed back by kicking her while facing away. She stepped back, clutching her nether regions. Oscar twirled on his left foot, and resumed his normal stance of right hand at eye level to his right.

Oscar scoffed at his adversary's lack of skill. 'You just don't give up, do you?' he said.

Sandy hissed. 'Shall we dance the dance of death?' She spat back calmly, but still full of menace.

'Whoa, whoa. No dancing, no death, lots of giving up now.' Theresa separated the two, and took their weapons and threw them into the hold.

'If you two children can't get along, I'll leave you here with a broken arm,' Cougar turned to Oscar, 'and I'll leave you here,' he nodded at Sandy, 'with him.' And back to Oscar.

The sage and the pirate looked at each other. 'We'll be good.'

'Finally!' The sword mistress, sword master, saint and assassin said.

ED: Alliteration! Yay!

XXXXX

The trip to Egypt was, like all of the others, strikingly uneventful. Stray fishermen around the Southern Spanish, French and Italian coasts sometimes tried to sell their goods, and their little boat was attacked by pirates three times. The bandits would step on board from their often much larger boats, but upon seeing six highly skilled warriors, some of them with weapons that they hadn't even heard or seen of, they quickly retreated to avoid being poked, stabbed, slashed, kicked, sliced and clubbed.

At night, Sandy would entertain them with tales of her upbringing, her seafaring adventures, of traditional fairytales and legends of her area, and even songs that her mother and father had passed down to her.

The group learned that Sandy was 35 years old, and that she had grown up in south-east Italy. Her father was an established fisherman until he died at the age of 51, when Sandy was 16. Her mother continued on fishing, but wasn't as good at it. They became quite poor, and so Sandy ran away from home to save her mother.

Sandy learned an Italian/French style of rapier fighting at the age of 22 in the north of Italy, several hundred miles away. She returned to her mother's house, but she was rejected by her, saying that Sandy was 'a traitorous whore'. Not even the presentation of a large amount of money that Sandy had acquired over her travels would please her mother.

So, with nothing else to do, Sandy became a wandering sailor. Occasionally stopping in cities, sometimes stopping men who would beat their wives, or aggressive youths who wanted to take advantage of her, she would humiliate them with a flick of her wrist.

Sandy would continue this sail-stop-fight-sail-stop-fight life for ten years, until she was sailing around the island of the United Kingdom. She heard from the local residents of Norway and Denmark, that there was a great war being instigated in a land called Grandall. Interested, she sailed around the area.

Learning that the man who was in charge of the Grandall army was a man named Girardot Arzegas, she immediately signed up and fought a brigand operation for three months. Thinking to herself that this could be a way to prove to her mother that she was worthy of her love, she ascended the ranks in weeks. Beginning as a lowly cadet, she was promoted all the way to Girardot's deputy commander.

But the day after she learned of her new life, the news came in from a ninja called Kagami, who was working in the Border Patrol unit. Her mother had died, and she had left the will completely to Sandy. The wandering sailor set off at once, saying she thoroughly enjoyed the _eighteen_ hours of the second-highest rank in the army.

Sailing all the way home, she read the will. The will was as follows (Sandy translated it for the group, who other than Theresa, didn't understand a word. Theresa picked up a couple of words, but not much.)

2,500 gold pieces

Your father's boat

The house

The cat

The horse

Sandy took the gold, kept the cat and horse, and sold the house for a whopping 350 gold pieces.

'I can't even buy another decent horse with that much!' she cried.

The buyer, a heavyset man who looked like he could break her rapier with two fingers, smirked. 'Take it or leave it, missy.'

Sandy thought to herself. _What would Father do?_

She took the money and set off without another word.

The Italian resumed her previous lifestyle, but found that she could get good money by partaking in courier work. Sailing with people, goods, even livestock, she earned money to rival a farmer working in the north.

'And here we are,' Sandy concluded.

ED: We're back at the story now. Flashback is over.

Elle and Theresa were drinking in the story around six weeks after they had left, but the men weren't paying any attention. Theresa twice questioned Sandy's ignorance of the lack of interest, but Sandy simply said, 'It's OK. Even in a gender-neutral country such as Grandall, the men still think they're better than the women.'

Theresa nodded, but Elle almost objected. Then the sword mistress thought back to her childhood, and didn't say thing else.

'So, you said you kept the cat and the horse. Where are they?' Theresa asked lightly.

Sandy leant back in her chair. 'On board.'

Theresa leapt up with all the grace of an anime fangirl. 'Where are they? Where, where, where?' Then she scampered off excessively quickly, and Elle found the Spanish teenager cuddling the cat, an adorable ginger creature.

Sandy walked behind, and leant on the doorframe. 'The name of the _gatto_ is Cielo, and the _cavallo_'s name is Terra.' She gave the horse a friendly pat.

Theresa smiled. 'So, you have Sky and Land. Now, all you need is _Mare_.'

Sandy pointed to the water. 'Found it. I have everything I need – mare, Cielo, Terra, Donatella, and Estoc.'

'What's Estoc?' Elle asked, frowning.

'My rapier. Bought it in Monaco. It's quite sharp and light, but it's a little flimsy.' Sandy turned and picked it up, bouncing it in her hands.

'Can I hold it?' Elle asked, eyes alight with fascination.

'Sure.' Sandy passed it over.

Elle twirled it around, and attempted an enthusiastic horizontal slash. She accidentally let go of it, and threw it across the room. It embedded itself in the wall.

Sandy raised an eyebrow. 'Funny… it's not that sharp, is it?'

'Hey ladies.' Lee called from far away. 'Dinner's ready.'

Theresa bounded forward, but Elle stayed behind and tried to dislodge the rapier from the wooden wall. Sandy put a hand on her shoulder, saying, 'It's OK. I'll deal with it tomorrow.'

Elle smiled lightly. 'Just hope that no pirates come on board.'

'PIRATES!' A yell came from above them. Sandy ran out to see Cougar looking through a telescope.

Theresa ran forward, staff in hand. 'It can't be! Pirates, here?'

Sandy didn't say a word; she ran back to the stable where her sword was in the wall. She struggled with it, even attaching a piece of rope to the handle and getting Terra to pull, but to no avail.

Cougar sprinted down. 'Sandy! They're only 100 yards away. Find another weapon to fight with.'

'That rapier is a part of my life! I never learned with anything else…' she cried.

Cougar didn't bother listening, but ran back up and unsheathed his kunai.

Sandy shuffled to the hold, where Elle's weapons were kept. She clawed through the lot, uncovering daggers, tambourines, chained sickles, various swords, until she came across Elle's katana. Sandy took it and ran out, only to almost crash into what seemed to look like the head pirate.

She brutally stabbed him in the stomach, but he just snickered, showing no signs that he was in pain. He kicked Sandy off, and lifted his shirt.

Lee gaped. The man was wearing armour. 'Armoured? You cur!' With his dao, he slashed diagonally at his torso. The man stumbled back, but with his enormous broadsword he swung around and almost cleaved Lee's head off.

On the other side of the boat, Oscar and Theresa were dealing with six brawny men, who were all clutching identical daggers.

The sage and the saint were back-to-back. 'Any ideas?' Oscar hissed to her.

Theresa jumped over a low slash. 'I have one,' and she jumped high in the air.

Like a pack of wolves, the men all looked up where she had propelled herself six yards high with her staff. Oscar took the opportunity to jump, twist and land a crushing kick to one of them.

The men to his right and left suddenly snapped out of their trance, and both stabbed at Oscar. He caught both of their daggers in the design of his sword, and twisted. The pirates both spun in the same direction in the air, and by pure coincidence they landed face-first. Oscar triumphantly stomped on them, and said, 'And that, ladies and gentlemen, is called _style_.' He ran after Theresa.

Unfortunately for her, she was being overwhelmed by the sheer force of the four brigands. She extended her staff and enlarged the diameter, and swung at two of them. They doubled over and fell to the ground, but one of them got behind Theresa and held his dagger to her neck. 'Anyone moves, she dies. Got it?' he spat.

Oscar and Theresa looked over, and as they were about to drop their weapons, the man who was threatening to kill Theresa just crumpled.

Elle was standing there, with nothing other than a frying pan.

'Gee, thanks for taking my katana!' She yelled at Sandy, who was now blindly slashing at the head pirate.

Oscar and Elle took the opportunity to both land simultaneous flying kicks to the final pirate of six in the head. He stepped back, and then fell back over the rails of the boat. He pivoted his hips and fell head-first into the unforgiving Mediterranean Sea.

Oscar ran back into the stable, and with one almighty _yank_ pulled the rapier out of the wall, taking half of the wall with it.

'I'll fix that later.' He muttered, and ran at Sandy.

With a gloriously unanticipated punch to the man's jaw, Oscar freed Sandy and handed back her rapier.

'Estoc! How'd you manage to get it out?' She quickly kissed Oscar on the cheek, and then handed Elle back her treasured Tobikage.

'Thanks, but I need to get Onimaro.' Elle ran back to the hold, while Oscar dreamily sank at the knees.

The head pirate was getting angry now. 'Aaaargh!' he yelled, and with two hands on the handle he swung at Oscar. It hit with a sickening crunch, and a massive amount of blood erupted from his chest. Elle, who was standing nearby, counted four ribs breaking. He slumped to the ground, and Elle gasped, and dropped her katana.

'_Oscar!'_ she cried, and pulled him away.

After blocking the fourth attempted beheading, Theresa dashed over. 'Elle? What happened to him?'

Elle waved at her to go back and fight. 'Go back! He'll take all of you out unless you all fight!'

Theresa shook her head in disbelief, then ran back in.

Back on deck, the fight was getting serious. 'When I'm through with you, you'll never see the light of day again!' The pirate jeered contemptuously. Lee frowned, then kicked his head six times and then booted him overboard. 'I don't know about that.'

Sandy took the frying pan and threw it at the pirate's head. 'And don't you forget it!'

The last pirate, who had his hands up and his dagger on the ground, dived overboard.

Elle darted forward and snatched his shirt just before he touched the water.

'You're not going anywhere!' She said, before hoisting him back onto the deck. He tried to twist out of her grip, but Lee, Theresa, Cougar and Sandy all brandished their weapons threateningly. At the sight of the Spanish girl's staff expanding and contracting with her breathing, he relented. 'OK! OK! I'll tell you everything I know.'

Sandy smiled. 'Oh good. Now, judging by your boat, you aren't real pirates, are you? You, at least, are just a humble fisherman. I am correct, no?' She rasped in her hearty Italian accent.

Still trembling, he stood up and Elle let go. 'Yes, I don't really want to fight you. We were threatened by a demon, who said that he had to kill you. He said that we were to do its dirty work. All of my crew, my captain, his first mate, everyone except me, were brainwashed by him. He said something about a fragment of Soul Edge.'

He paused, and frowned sadly. 'That can't be the same Soul Edge that people called the Sword of Salvation? Right?'

Cougar replied flatly. 'It is not a Sword of Salvation. It was the sword behind the Azure Knight. It is a sword of pure evil.'

He exhaled sharply. 'Then what am I to do with my crew? They're possessed!'

'We can deal with them in a minute. But for now, we'll just secure them so that they don't try to kill us again.' Cougar continued.

Sandy motioned for them to come in to the kitchen. 'Come in, guys. I'll get you something to eat.'

XXXXX

Two hours later, after several glasses of _vino_, the group were relaxed and settled down. Elle, who was the most sober of the lot (she had only one glass of wine), leant forward in her chair. 'So, tell us about this demon that confronted your group.' She said towards the pirate, who had told them his name was Dario.

'Well,' he said in a raspy, tired voice, 'it looked like a man, but it had wings and lotsa teeth. Enough to bite your head off.' He laughed, but started coughing. 'Its body looked like nothing I had ever seen before… it was so tall! So tall, and so evil…' he wept drunkenly.

Elle pondered his wine-fuelled explanation. She walked over to the desk opposite the room, and picked up a piece of parchment, a quill and some ink. 'I wonder, can you draw it?'

'Yerse…' Dario leant forward, taking the writing tools. After scratching uncoordinatedly for five minutes, he submitted his sketch. Elle took it, and gasped.

'Where's Oscar? Is he awake?'

Cougar lolled around, and looked at her tiredly. 'E's still out. We'll take 'im to the _médico_ as soon as we get to wherever we're goin'.'

'Look at this.' She whispered. Cougar took another sip of the wine.

'_¡Dios mio!_' he spat out his wine all over Theresa.

'Hey! _¡Idiota stupido!' _she yelled, looking at the mess that turned her top a deep red.

'Sorry, Theresa, but you gotta look at this!' Cougar cried nervously. He had always known her to have a fiery temper, and the wine wasn't doing anything to help that. Anything he could do to keep her under control was useful.

She took the picture and looked at it. 'What is this?'

Dario spoke up at last. 'That's the demon that forced my crew to attack you. He calls himself Abyss.'

Lee, who had been sleeping since his fifth glass forty minutes ago, was awake due to the commotion. 'Abyss?' he croaked.

Elle nodded. 'So now, we have two major enemies. This demon,' she hit the paper, 'and the Dread Pirate. We have to get to a doctor as soon as possible, so we can tell Oscar and plan our next move.'

Sandy hobbled outside, and looked at the stars, and the coastline. 'By the looks of things, we're about two days from the capital, Cairo. We must have passed the Libya-Egypt border, so if we were to head into the coast right now, we'd get there in one day. But it is really rather hot, so we'll go in further up. Now, I think it's time for bed.'

Theresa smiled. 'I agree. G'night.'

Lee yawned, then walked to his bed and immediately fell asleep without even taking his clothes off.

Cougar chuckled. 'He'll feel that in the morning.' He walked to his room and shut the door.

'I guess it's just us two. Are you tired?' Sandy asked Elle, who was clearing the table.

'No, not really. Are you?' she replied.

'To tell the truth, I am. Problem is that we need to keep sailing. Do you think you can sail it until sunrise?' Sandy stretched.

'I'll give it a go. Where are the controls?'

'Through here.' Sandy walked outside, and Elle followed her up to the top deck. There was a steering wheel, and the controls for the speed. Currently it was in half speed. Sandy patted Elle on the back and said, 'Any problems, wake me up. OK?'

'OK,' Elle said nervously.

Sandy yawned and went inside. As soon as the door closed, Elle stepped over quietly, then nudged the controls to full throttle.

XXXXX

How's that? An update which took, I dunno, three months? Well, I'm on holidays now, and I can write more. I will also be working on two other stories, both of which are lemon (!!!), but they have different pairings. One relatively common, the other completely new… see my profile for more information.

Next part will be Flirtatious (Part Two), where they will revive Oscar and confront Abyss. Probably due by May.

Please review! HM


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